Highlights
- 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,
down 1.5 percent from 2005 after an across-the-board cut (see
Table).
- 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 with no money for new grants.
- Congress
sustains the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) program by providing funding close to this year’s level at $105
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 4.3 percent to $331 million (see Table).
- R&D in the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) increases
1.7 percent to $661 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 Final Appropriations
On November 22, President Bush signed the FY 2006
Science, State, Justice, and Commerce appropriations bill (HR 2862)
into law. But a later Defense appropriations bill in December imposed
an across-the-board cut of 1 percent on all discretionary programs,
retroactively cutting Commerce spending. Congress gives the Department
of Commerce an R&D portfolio of $1.1 billion in FY 2006, down 1.5
percent 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 addition to the later 1 percent across-the-board
cut for all discretionary programs included in the FY 2006 Defense appropriations
bill. (All figures in this analysis reflect both across-the-board cuts.)
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 $11 million or
1.7 percent to $661 million, while NIST R&D
declines 5.0 percent to $438 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 $72 million, including a rescission,
is 49 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 5.0 percent down to $438 million. The main NIST R&D activity—Scientific and Technical Research and Services
(STRS), which funds intramural research at the NIST laboratories—gains
$14 million in R&D funding to $331 million, a 4.3 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 $105 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 $19 million or 63 percent boost in its R&D funding to $48
million for major renovations to NIST facilities in Maryland and Colorado.
But the CRF appropriation also contains $125 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 $174 million CRF appropriation, more than
double the $73 million last year, is the main reason the total NIST
budget increases dramatically by 6.5 percent to $745 million in 2006.
NOAA R&D climbs $11
million or 1.7 percent to $661 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 by the
end of December. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) R&D portfolio
grows $40 million to $103 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 $322 million, 4.8 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 $21 million down to $157 million, while weather and air
quality research climbs from $51 million to $66 million.
Impacts of Commerce R&D
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)
-
December 29, 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
