|
Go to: -Table.
Commerce R&D by Program in FY 2007 Senate Appropriations PDF
version of this document Main
R&D in the FY 2007 Budget Page
Supplemental
Materials: "NIST ACI Increase
Advances, but House Slashes NOAA and ATP R&D," AAAS R&D Funding
Update on R&D in House FY 2007 Commerce Appropriations "Commerce
R&D Falls Despite Big Proposed Gains For NIST Labs," AAAS R&D
Funding Update on R&D in the FY 2007 Commerce Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2007 Budget -
| Highlights -
The Senate has joined the House in endorsing the Bush Administration’s proposed
large increase for intramural research at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) in 2007 as part of the President’s American Competitiveness
Initiative. NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research Services (STRS) would
see its R&D funding increase 21 percent to $382 million in the both the House
and Senate appropriations, while intramural Construction of Research Facilities
(CRF) R&D would jump 41 percent to $68 million (see Table).
- But for the
first time, the Senate would agree with the House and Bush Administration proposals
to eliminate NIST’s external Advanced Technology Program
(ATP), thus making it likely that ATP
will be terminated in the final 2007 budget. -
The Senate stands in sharp disagreement with the House and the Administration
over R&D in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The
Senate would give NOAA an R&D portfolio of $779 million, a dramatic $162 million
or 26 percent increase in contrast to steep cuts in the House appropriation. -
The NIST and NOAA increases help to boost total Commerce R&D to $1.3 billion
in the Senate plan, a 17.8 percent gain (see Table).
Commerce R&D in FY 2007 Senate Appropriations On
July 13, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2007
Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill (CJS; HR 5672). On June 29,
the full House approved its version of the similar Science, State, Justice, and
Commerce appropriations bill (SSJC). The bill is a major funding source for federal
R&D, combining funding for the National Science Foundation
(NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), and the Department of Commerce.
The Senate joins
the House in fully endorsing proposed increases for Commerce’s National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) intramural laboratories as part of the American
Competitiveness Initiative, bringing these increases one step closer to reality.
The Senate CJS bill would provide $382 million for NIST’s
intramural research (up 21 percent) and $68 million for intramural laboratory
construction (up 41 percent), as requested. Both NSF and Commerce are key
parts of the President’s proposed “American Competitiveness Initiative” (ACI)
that was first previewed in his State of the Union address in response to a growing
wave of concern about the state of U.S.
innovation. The ACI proposes to double funding for three key physical sciences
agencies over the next decade, and the 2007 budget requests the first installment
of this ambitious plan. NSF and the NIST laboratories, both funded in the SSJC
bill, are two of the three favored agencies (the other is DOE’s Office of Science). The House and the Senate have both
drafted appropriations that agree to the proposed increases for all three ACI
agencies, making eventual approval of these increases almost certain. (For details of the President’s request for
Commerce R&D, please see Chapter 13 of AAAS
Report XXXI: R&D FY 2007 or
the March 6 Commerce R&D Funding Update. For details
of House appropriations for Commerce, see the June 23 R&D
Funding Update). The
large intramural increases would allow for more of everything: there would be
increases for R&D across the broad range of NIST programs, including hydrogen,
nanotechnology, neutron research, measurement science and technology, cybersecurity,
and bioimaging. On the construction side, the large
increase would allow for major renovations at NIST’s
Boulder (CO) site, repair for aging facilities, and construction of NIST’s Center for Neutron Research. But
increased investments for the NIST laboratories would be offset by cuts in NIST’s
external programs, even though they all support the physical sciences and related
research. For the first time, the Senate would agree to perennial House and
Bush Administration proposals to eliminate NIST’s extramural
Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The ATP has a total budget of $79 million
in FY 2006, down by nearly half from the previous year, and can only fund previously
awarded grants because it has no money available for new grants in 2006.
The zero House and Senate appropriations, if they become final, would force
an immediate shutdown of the program. In previous years, the House and Administration
had proposed the elimination of ATP, but the Senate had sustained it in its appropriations.
The Senate would instead save the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP), turning a 56 percent requested cut
that would dramatically downsize the program into flat funding of $106 million
next year. MEP is 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
total NIST budget of $764 million would be 1.6 percent more than this year, with
large increases for intramural research offset by the elimination of the ATP and
flat-funding of the MEP. The Senate appropriation includes $123 million in non-R&D
congressional earmarks in the Construction of Research Facilities account. These
earmarks go to projects in Mississippi,
Alabama, and South
Carolina, states in which NIST does not have laboratories.
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF) In
contrast to sharp cuts proposed by the Administration and the House, the Senate
sends a strong signal of support for R&D in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) by boosting its R&D portfolio a dramatic 26 percent
or $162 million to an all-time high of $779 million (see Table and Figure 1).
Although the final NOAA R&D total is unlikely to reach the Senate level,
the generous appropriation does give the Senate leverage in conference negotiations
against the austere House funding levels. If House and Senate negotiators split
the difference, then the 26 percent Senate increase and the 18 percent House cut
could net to a slight increase in final NOAA R&D appropriations. The
Senate takes NOAA to task for failing to fund many of the recommendations of the
Pew Ocean Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, two high-level commissions
which have recently called for a comprehensive U.S.
ocean policy, including a robust program of ocean-related research. The Senate
bill criticizes NOAA for requesting steep cuts in key ocean programs in the current
and previous budget requests. Total NOAA R&D in the Senate plan would be
an all-time high of $779 million, up 26.3 percent, with the largest increases
going to the National Ocean Service (NOS) and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
(OAR), the two NOAA offices most involved in ocean research. OAR R&D would
climb 31 percent or $100 million to $422 million, in contrast to a steep cut in
the House. Within OAR, ocean-related programs such as the National Sea Grant College
program (up more than 50 percent to $84 million), the National Undersea Research
Program (up three-fold to $12.5 million), and the Ocean Exploration program (nearly
doubling to $25 million) would be beneficiaries of the Senate’s emphasis on oceans.
NOS R&D would surge 46 percent to $139 million, led by boosts to the National
Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (up
13 percent to $61 million), new funding for an Integrated Ocean Observation System,
increased funding for ocean observing and assessment programs, as well as numerous
Senate earmarks for ocean research centers. Impacts of Commerce R&D The
Senate’s good news for NIST’s laboratories and NOAA’s R&D
programs would result in a sharp turnaround from the steady fall in Commerce R&D
for most of this decade (see Figure 1), but similar Senate appropriations
in recent years have been chiseled away in conference negotiations by the House.
Since 2002, the Commerce R&D budget has declined in real terms every year;
the 2007 House appropriation would reduce it below $1 billion in today’s dollars
for the first time since 1992, while the Senate appropriation would reverse three
years’ worth of steep cuts. The final result is likely to be something in between.
Outlook
and Next Steps The
House has approved its Science-State-Justice-Commerce appropriations bill, but
the Senate may not take up its CJS bill until September or later. A final, compromise
appropriation may not be ready until after the November elections, although when
it does appear it is likely to contain the ACI-driven increase for NIST. NOAA’s
fate is unclear, however, because of the substantial differences between House
cuts and Senate increases for nearly every program. (This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2007 congressional appropriations. The complete
series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses
of R&D in FY 2007 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2007 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.)-
July 25, 2006
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
|
