(This analysis is a preview of the Commerce section in the
forthcoming AAAS Report XXIX: Research and Development
FY 2005, a comprehensive look at the President’s budget for R&D
in FY 2005. This analysis contains revised AAAS estimates of R&D,
different from figures presented in the AAAS Preliminary
Analysis of February 5. More tables and continually updated supplemental
materials on R&D in the FY 2005 budget can be found on the AAAS R&D
Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
- Once again, the Bush Administration in FY 2005 proposes to eliminate
the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) at the Department of Commerce. The
ATP has a budget of $171 million this year.
- The savings
would allow for a 30 percent boost for intramural research at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratories (see Table
II-14) after a steep cut this year.
- The budget
would keep funding for the non-R&D Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) at NIST at $39 million, well below the $106 million level of last
year and previous years.
- National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) R&D would decline by 1.1 percent
to $610 million. R&D in the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
account in NOAA would fall 10.1 percent in FY 2005 because of proposed
eliminations of earmarks and reductions in core OAR programs.
Department of Commerce R&D in the FY 2005 Budget
The Department
of Commerce’s two major R&D agencies—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST)—would both have declining R&D portfolios in the FY 2005 budget
request. NOAA R&D would fall 1.1 percent or $7 million to $610 million
while NIST R&D would fall 9.5 percent to $426 million (see Table
II-14).
Once again, the FY 2005 budget proposes to eliminate the Advanced
Technology Program (ATP). Although the House has sided with the Bush
Administration in voting to eliminate the program in previous budget bills, the
program has been saved every year by the Senate. Last year, the Bush
Administration proposed to eliminate ATP in FY 2004, but requested a total of
$27 million to fund already-awarded grants and also to pay close-out costs for
the program. Congress ended up approving $171 million for ATP this year, most
($145 million) of which would be for R&D. The FY 2005 request proposes no
funding for the program, meaning approximately $30 million in close-out costs
would presumably have to be found in other NIST accounts if Congress agrees to
the request. Instead of arguing against ATP on the program’s merits as in past
years, the FY 2005 request simply states that scarce funds are needed for
higher priorities.
The main NIST R&D
activity—Scientific and Technical Research and Services
(STRS), which funds intramural research at the NIST laboratories—would
be the beneficiary of ATP savings with a 29.8 percent increase for its
R&D to $367 million. But the large requested increase could come
at a high cost: last year, the Administration requested a large
increase for the NIST laboratories and the elimination of ATP. Congress
saved the ATP but found the money by cutting deeply into NIST’s
intramural R&D, down nearly 10 percent this year from last year.
In FY 2004, these cuts could mean early retirements or layoffs of NIST
scientists, and delays or cancellations of planned projects such as
developing standards for voting machines. The FY 2005 budget could present
Congress with similar difficult choices: saving the ATP could require
further cuts in NIST laboratories, and even eliminating the ATP could
require Congress to provide $30 million or so in unrequested
close-out costs out of the laboratory accounts.
With the
intramural R&D increase, NIST plans to invest $26 million for state-of-the-art
instrumentation for the new Advanced Measurement Laboratory on NIST’s
Gaithersburg, MD campus; $8 million for improvements at the NIST Center
for Neutron Research; $16 million for advanced measurement science and
standards; $19 million for measurements and standards work on homeland
security; and $16 million in advanced manufacturing R&D, including
nanoscale manufacturing. These investments
cut across the traditional laboratory program areas in Table
II-14, and would result in large increases for most of them.
Another NIST R&D program,
Construction of Research Facilities, would increase $16 million to $59
million in FY 2005, after excluding $21 million in congressionally designated
projects inserted into the FY 2004 budget. The FY 2005 request would
allow for construction and major renovations to NIST facilities in Maryland
and Colorado, with an
emphasis next year on aging facilities at the Boulder,
CO, NIST labs. The non-R&D Manufacturing
Extension Partnership (MEP), a program to operate a nationwide network
of extension centers to disseminate better manufacturing technologies
to small- and medium-sized manufacturers, would receive only $39 million,
the same as this year but down nearly two-thirds from the $106 million
FY 2003 funding level and similar funding levels in previous years.
The FY 2004 appropriation confirmed the Administration’s plans to phase
out the federal contribution to this federal-state partnership, and
the FY 2005 request would leave MEP center funding heavily in state
hands. As a result, many MEP centers will likely close as states continue
to face tough budgetary times.
NOAA R&D would fall by 1.1 percent down to $610 million. The FY
2005 request would keep most NOAA R&D programs level-funded or declining
slightly. In Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, or NOAA Research, the
total R&D portfolio would fall 10.1 percent down to $293 million,
mostly because of the proposed elimination of FY 2004 congressional
earmarks. NOAA’s climate research program
would increase from $170 million to $183 million, composed of $51 million
in new funds to support the Administration’s Climate Change Research
Initiative (CCRI) offset partially by reductions in longstanding climate
change programs. Weather and air quality research would fall steeply
from $55 million to $35 million because of deleted earmarks and the
proposed elimination of the US Weather Research Program. Funding for
the National Sea Grant College Program would decline from $62 million
down to $57 million. Begun in 1966, Sea Grant provides research grants
to more than 200 universities to gain better understanding of marine
life and marine resources through education, outreach, and technology
transfer.
Impacts of the Commerce R&D Portfolio
Figure 1. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-size PDF version of the
chart)
The steep cut to Commerce’s
R&D portfolio in FY 2005 would represent the third year in a row of decline,
as shown in Figure 1. Although Commerce R&D grew substantially in the first
half of the 1990s as NIST’s technology programs and NOAA’s environmental programs gained in priority, Commerce
R&D funding has stagnated since FY 1995, with large swings due to the
up-and-down fortunes of the ATP and changing construction needs at the NIST
laboratories.
Figure 2. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-size PDF version of the
chart)
The differing missions of
NOAA and NIST mean that Commerce has a diverse research portfolio in
terms of science and engineering disciplines, as shown in Figure 2.
NOAA funds environmental sciences and life sciences research related
to its oceanic and atmospheric missions, while NIST funds engineering,
physical sciences, mathematics, and computer sciences research.
Figure 3. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-size PDF version of the
chart)
NOAA’s
research has increased at a more predictable rate than NIST research, resulting
in mostly steady increases in Commerce support for research in the environmental
sciences and the life sciences (see Figure 3),
although life sciences research has leveled off in recent years. The proposed
cuts to NOAA R&D would result in shrinking support for the environmental
sciences. NIST research, however, has been subject to the ups and downs of key
NIST programs. NIST support for the engineering sciences and the computer
sciences has lagged since FY 1995, and the FY 2004 and FY 2005 budget cuts will
most likely result in continuing cuts in NIST support. NIST support for the physical
sciences, however, has mostly remained steady and has shown upward trends in
most years.
The vast majority
of Commerce R&D is performed internally in NOAA and NIST laboratories.
79 percent of Commerce R&D is performed in federal labs, both NOAA’s
network of laboratories throughout the country and NIST’s
large facilities in Maryland
and Colorado. Only 8 percent
of the Commerce R&D portfolio goes to universities, while 11 percent
goes to industrial firms.
- March 3, 2004 (revised March 16)
(More materials on R&D in the FY 2005 budget,
historical data and charts, and more information on AAAS Report XXIX: Research and Development FY 2005, can be found
on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
