Highlights
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In a compromise between steep House-proposed cuts and equally large
Senate-proposed increases, the final Department of Commerce R&D
budget totals $1.1 billion, the same as 2005 (see Table).
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The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) survives House and Administration
proposals to eliminate it, though at a little more than half last year’s
funding level.
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Congress sustains the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) program by providing funding close to this year’s level at $106
million, in contrast to a requested cut of almost two-thirds (see Table).
Intramural research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) increases 5.4 percent to $334 million (see Table).
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R&D in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
increases 2.7 percent to $668 million in contrast to House and Administration
proposals for steep cuts, but the increase is due to a new earmarked
Alaskan fisheries R&D program, leaving other NOAA R&D down.
DOC R&D in FY 2006 Conference Appropriations
On November 7, congressional
appropriators released the conference report (final agreement) for the
FY 2006 Science, State, Justice, and Commerce appropriations bill (HR
2862), setting the stage for final congressional approval and a presidential
signature in the next week. But a later appropriations bill may impose
across-the-board cuts of up to 2 percent on all programs, even after
the bill is signed into law. Congress gives the Department of Commerce
an R&D portfolio of $1.1 billion in FY 2006, exactly the same as
last year in a compromise between steep cuts in the House and Administration
proposals and large increases in the Senate plan (see Table).
Because
of an extensive reorganization of appropriations bill jurisdictions,
in FY 2006 the Department of Commerce is funded for the first time with
two other large R&D agencies, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA. NSF
and NASA were formerly funded in the now defunct VA-HUD appropriations
bill. As a result, the former Commerce, Justice, and State appropriations
bill now has “Science” in its name. The conference report contains an
across-the-board cut of 0.28 percent to get the bill’s totals under
the congressional target, in advance of a larger across-the-board cut
for all domestic programs of up to 2 percent that is expected to be
included in the last FY 2006 appropriations bill. (All figures in this
analysis reflect the 0.28 percent cut.)
Both
of Commerce’s two major R&D agencies—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST)—steer a course between steep House cuts and large Senate increases
in the final appropriation. NOAA R&D increases $18 million or
2.7 percent to $668 million, while NIST R&D declines slightly to
$448 million (see Table). Both agencies would have seen steep cuts
in the Administration budget request. (For details of the President’s
request for Commerce R&D, please see Chapter
13 of AAAS
Report XXX: R&D FY 2006 or
March 9 Commerce R&D Funding Update).
The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) in NIST
survives another year after yet another round of House and Bush Administration
proposals to eliminate it. The FY 2006 appropriation of $80 million,
however, is 43 percent below last year’s budget and is enough just to
cover 2006 costs of previously awarded grants. The Senate tried to set
aside $60 million for new grants, but the conference removed these funds
so ATP will most likely make no new awards in 2006.
Total
NIST R&D falls by 2.7 percent down to $448 million. The main NIST
R&D activity—Scientific and
Technical Research and Services (STRS), which funds intramural research
at the NIST laboratories—gains $17 million in R&D funding to $334
million, a 5.4 percent increase.
In
another repeat of past years, Congress disagrees sharply with the Administration
request for funding of the non-R&D Hollings 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
on a cost-shared basis with state governments and with users. The $106
million agreement for MEP is slightly off last year’s funding level
but well above the $47 million request which would have phased out the
federal contribution to this federal-state partnership and left MEP
center funding heavily in state hands.
Figure 1. (click
on the image for PDF)
The
largest R&D gain in the NIST portfolio goes to Construction of Research
Facilities (CRF), with a $20 million or 66 percent boost in its
R&D funding to $49 million for major renovations to NIST facilities
in Maryland and Colorado. But the CRF appropriation also contains $127
million in non-R&D congressionally designated projects, mainly in
South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama, far away from NIST facilities.
Although most congressional earmarks are written into report language
accompanying the bill, making them theoretically optional, these earmarks
are written into the bill itself and carry the force of law. The total
$176 million CRF appropriation, more than double the $73 million last
year, is the main reason the total NIST budget increases dramatically
by 8.6 percent to $759 million in 2006.
NOAA
R&D climbs $18 million or 2.7 percent to $668 million, but the
appropriation contains $51 million in earmarked new funds for fisheries and
marine mammals R&D in Alaska, leaving all other NOAA R&D programs
collectively with less than last year. NOAA is instructed to come up with a
spending plan for the new program within the next month. The National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) R&D portfolio grows $41 million to $104 million
because of the new program, but other NMFS R&D programs wind up with cuts.
NOAA’s largest R&D unit, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), receives
an R&D portfolio of $325 million, 3.8 percent less than last year. Within
OAR, Congress provides $55 million for the National Sea Grant College Program,
down from $62 million this year. 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.
OAR Climate Research falls nearly $20 million down to $158 million, while
weather and air quality research climbs from $51 million to $67 million.
Next Steps and Possible Impacts
The
FY 2006 appropriation leaves the Commerce R&D portfolio down in
inflation-adjusted terms, consistent with trends over the past few years
(see 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, Commerce R&D funding has stagnated since FY 1995,
with large swings due to the up-and-down fortunes of the ATP, changing
construction needs at the NIST laboratories, and tight budgets for NOAA.
Figure 2. (click
on the image for PDF)
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. Although Commerce is not
the leading funding source for any of the science and engineering disciplines,
the department does provide key support for specific areas in oceanography,
atmospheric sciences, standards research, measurement technologies,
and physics most closely related to NIST and NOAA missions.
The
vast majority of Commerce R&D is performed internally in NOAA and NIST
laboratories. 83 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 13 percent of the Commerce R&D
portfolio goes to universities, while just 2 percent goes to industrial firms.
As a result, Commerce’s R&D portfolio is heavily concentrated
geographically (see Figure 3). Maryland and Colorado alone receive nearly half
of Commerce’s R&D funds because of NIST’s and NOAA’s presences in these two
states. The other states in Commerce’s top 10 are locations of large NOAA laboratories.
Figure 3. (click
on the image for PDF)
The
House and the Senate are expected to give final approval to the Science, State,
Justice, and Commerce bill shortly, and President Bush is expected to sign the
bill into law before the temporary FY 2006 funding bill expires on November 18.
But this conference report may not be the final word; Congress is working on an
across-the-board cut for all appropriations to add to the final FY 2006
appropriations bill. The cut is expected to affect even enacted appropriations
bills and reduce funding for all programs by up to 2 percent.
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November 9, 2005
(This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding
Updates on FY 2006 congressional appropriations. The complete series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses
of R&D in FY 2006 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd) in the "FY
2006 R&D" or the "What's New"
sections.)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
AAAS R&D
Web site: www.aaas.org/spp/rd
