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Dept. of Energy R&D in FY 2008 Senate Appropriations PDF
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R&D in the FY 2008 Budget Page
Supplemental
Materials: "House Boosts DOE
Science and Energy R&D," AAAS R&D Funding Update on DOE R&D
in FY 2008 House Appropriations "DOE
Science Leads the Pack in 2008 Budget," AAAS R&D Funding Update on
R&D in the FY 2008 DOE Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2008 Budget -
| Highlights -
Building on a requested increase and a generous House appropriation, the Senate
would go even higher with a $10.0 billion appropriation for the Department
of Energy’s (DOE) R&D portfolio in FY 2008, an increase of 14.5 percent or
$1.3 billion (see Table). - The Senate would give the Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science an 18 percent increase for its R&D to $4.1
billion, adding to a substantial proposed increase as part of the American Competitiveness
Initiative (ACI). - DOE’s energy-related R&D would total $2.0
billion in the Senate plan, an enormous 29.1 percent increase, in sharp contrast
to a requested cut. Both the House and the Senate would go along with proposed
increases for R&D investments in renewable energy technologies such as hydrogen,
biomass, and solar energy, but would also revive geothermal and hydropower R&D
programs proposed for elimination. In fossil fuels, the Senate would add to a
large request for coal R&D, including a one-third boost for carbon sequestration
R&D, but would also save gas and oil technology R&D programs from elimination
and would add congressionally designated projects after a one-year moratorium.
The Senate would also boost energy conservation programs proposed for cuts. - Although the House would eliminate funding
for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), the Senate would keep it going with
$66 million, nearly double current funding. In addition to a modest increase in
nuclear weapons R&D, the Senate would join the House in giving substantial
increases for nonproliferation R&D and environmental cleanup technology development,
resulting in a total DOE defense R&D investment of $3.9 billion, up 5.1 percent.
DOE R&D in FY 2008 Senate Appropriations On
June 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2008
Energy-Water appropriations bill (S 1751) providing funding for Department of
Energy (DOE) programs, a few weeks after its House counterpart approved a House
version. The full House and Senate are expected to debate their respective
versions later this month. The Senate
bill contains $32 billion in 2008 discretionary spending for DOE, the Corps of
Engineers, and other programs, $2.0 billion more than the current year and $1.8
billion more than the President’s request. DOE would receive a total budget of
$25.9 billion, $1.7 billion or 6.9 percent more than the current year and $1.1
billion above the President’s request (see Table).
DOE was already in line for a large R&D
funding increase in DOE’s request, but the House and now the Senate would add
even more money to its science programs and would also add money for renewable
energy R&D programs. In the Senate appropriation, DOE R&D would reach $10 billion for the
first time, a substantial $1.3 billion or 14.5 percent more than this year, and $761 million more than DOE’s request. There
would be large increases for all three DOE mission areas of science, energy, and
defense. President
Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and Advanced Energy Initiative
(AEI), both set for their second years in 2008, have made the Department of Energy’s
(DOE) R&D programs a high priority within an increasingly tight domestic budget.
(For details of DOE R&D in the FY 2008 budget request, see Chapter
8 of AAAS Report XXXII: R&D FY 2008
or the March 21 AAAS R&D Funding Update on DOE. For
details of House appropriations for DOE, see the June 13
R&D Funding Update.) DOE’s Office of Science is the largest federal sponsor
of physical sciences research and is thus one of three federal agencies (the other
two are the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology laboratories) that would receive substantial increases to fulfill
the ACI’s goal of increasing federal investments in basic physical sciences research.
DOE’s energy R&D portfolio funds R&D on a variety of topics, including
renewable energy R&D on the Administration priorities of hydrogen, solar power,
and biomass, all of which received substantial increases in 2007. The Democratic
majority in the 110th Congress has already signaled its support for
these two Administration priorities, both rhetorically (under different labels)
and financially in wrapping up 2007 appropriations earlier this year with increases
for these programs. Congress
again steps up to the plate for these programs in the 2008 appropriations process.
First, the House fully funded a requested 15 percent increase for the Office of
Science but added even more money for biological and environmental programs for
a 16.8 percent increase. In energy, the House chiseled the DOE request for hydrogen
R&D slightly, but added significantly to the requests for every other energy
R&D program including several that had been proposed for elimination. Now
the Senate would go above and beyond the House appropriation, both for the Office
of Science (up 18 percent) and for energy R&D programs (up a dramatic 29 percent).
R&D
in the DOE Office of Science 
Figure 1. (click on the image for
PDF)
DOE’s
Office of Science, in its various incarnations over the decades, has long been
the dominant federal sponsor of physical sciences research, and is also an important
supporter of computer sciences, mathematics, environmental sciences, materials
research, nanotechnology, and engineering; the Bush Administration’s and now Congress’
push to boost the Science budget would pay off for all Science research areas.
Last year, DOE requested a 14 percent increase for Science funding, and ended
up with 5 percent in February’s final 2007 appropriations. To catch up with the
ACI’s funding trajectory, the 2008 request for the total Office of Science budget
would be a 16 percent boost to $4.4 billion, consistent with a plan to double
the budget between 2006 and 2016. More than 90 percent of the Science budget goes
to R&D activities; Science R&D would gain 15.4 percent in the FY 2008
request to $4.1 billion; the House would add $50 million in R&D funding on
top of that for a 16.8 percent increase, while the Senate would add $89 million
to the request fro a total of $4.1 billion, an 18 percent boost (see Table).
The total Science budget would climb 18.4 percent to $4.5 billion, including additions
for non-R&D facilities maintenance costs. The large 2008 increase following
2007’s increase would mark a departure from the flat or declining funding trends
of earlier years (see Figure 1), and in real terms would bring Science funding
very close to its all-time high of 1992, before the Superconducting Super Collider
was canceled. Funding
for every Science program would increase substantially for the second year in
a row, including a 34 percent increase for fusion research, and roughly 20 percent
boosts for basic energy sciences, computing research, and biological and environmental
research (see Figure 2). Most Science programs would reach new highs in the
2008 House and Senate appropriations, although the two physics programs would
barely recover lost ground from recent budget cuts, to remain at the flat funding
levels of earlier this decade. The Office of Science supports cutting-edge
research through a mix of laboratory research at DOE’s national laboratories,
university-based research, and the construction and operation of large scientific
user facilities that can be used by external researchers for their experiments.
Roughly half of Science R&D funding goes to operate and construct facilities,
while the other half supports research, mostly at DOE laboratories but a large
portion at universities. The laboratory research and large facilities are housed
primarily at ten Science laboratories that are federally owned and contractor
operated, such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. After several years in which tight budgets
have forced the cancellation of planned facilities, dramatic reductions in facility
operating times, and reductions in external research support, the 2007 increase
and the even larger 2008 increase would allow the Office to open new facilities
and begin planning for newer ones, expand user times at existing facilities, and
boost external research. 
Figure 2. (click on the image for
PDF)
The Senate would agree to the requests for most Science
programs but would add $73 million on top of a requested increase for Biological
and Environmental Research (BER) for a 25 percent boost to $605 million. $49
million of the Senate add-on would go to R&D earmarks, congressionally designated performer-specific projects
making a reappearance in 2008 appropriations bills after a one-year moratorium
on domestic earmarks in 2007. Another $20 million on top of the request would
go to nuclear medicine research, instead of the zero funding requested. Basic Energy Sciences (BES) has fared the
best among Science program areas in recent years, and would continue to do well
with a 21.0 percent increase to $1.5 billion in DOE’s request, the House appropriation,
and now the Senate (see Figure 2). The Senate’s extra dollars above the request
would go mostly to double funding for DOE’s EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate
Competitive Research) program. Construction funding for the Linac Coherent Light
Source, the Advanced Light Source, and planning for the National Synchrotron Light
Source II would keep the program busy with a full plate of future facilities,
even as the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS; due to open this year), four light
sources, five nanoscale research centers would keep current operations at a high
level. BES would also fund more basic research on hydrogen, solar, and biomass
topics as a complement to the more applied energy research programs elsewhere
in DOE. High-performance computing research in the
Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program would be in for a
18 percent boost to $335 million to expand the availability of high-performance
computing capacity that researchers can use for their experiments. In fusion,
the multinational International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would
continue to expand with full U.S.
participation through the Fusion Energy Sciences program, up 34 percent or
$109 million to $428 million in 2008. ITER funding climbed from $19 million last
year to $60 million in 2007, and would soar to $160 million next year. The large
Fusion increase would enable ITER funding to climb and still leave enough for
a slight increase for domestic fusion activities in New
Jersey, California,
and Massachusetts. The High Energy Physics (HEP) program, which funds
basic research on the nature of matter and energy, would get a 5.0 percent increase
to $789 million (see Table). The program does most of its work at three facilities
located at two DOE labs (Fermilab in Illionois and the Stanford
Linear Accelerator
Center in California)
and also cooperates in the international Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland,
which transitions from fabrication toward operation later this year. Some funding
pressure would be relieved by a planned shift in operating funds for the B-factory
in California from HEP to the BES
program. The increase, along with the money freed up from the transfer, should
allow the program to sustain facility operating times, to boost research funding,
and to sustain a $60 million research investment in the International Linear Collider,
the next big international high-energy physics project after the LHC. The $7 million
above the request for HP would go to the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), a proposed
international and possibly multi-agency (with NASA) mission to search for dark
energy, and would send a signal to DOE that it should move forward with the mission.
The Nuclear Physics (NP) program would get an 11.5 percent increase to $471 million.
NP seeks to understand the structure and interactions of subatomic particles,
and supports four user facilities. DOE Energy R&D Programs Last year, President Bush proposed dramatic
funding boosts for selected alternative energy R&D programs as part of his
Advanced Energy Initiative (ACI) to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil; Congress unexpectedly added even more
money to bring DOE energy R&D to $1.5 billion in 2007, a surprising 32 percent
boost over the year before. The 2008 request retreats from the 2007 highs in most
areas down to $1.4 billion, but the House would barrel ahead with a $1.8 billion
total for energy R&D in 2008 and now the Senate would go even higher with
$2.0 billion, 29 percent more than the current year. Both the House and Senate
Energy-Water bills make a point of decrying a decades-long decline in federal
energy R&D investments down to one-fifth to one-third of peak 1980 funding
levels, and points to the 2007 and 2008 pending increases as the first steps toward
restoring federal investments in energy R&D. If the Senate appropriation is
enacted, then DOE energy R&D would climb 70 percent in just two years, although
funding levels would still remain below peak investments in the late 1970s. While the Administration’s energy R&D
increases in some areas would be offset by steep cuts or program eliminations
in other energy areas, the House and the Senate would provide increases across
the board for renewables, energy conservation, and fossil fuels R&D programs. In renewable energy, the Senate would add to
the request for every program, starting with hydrogen R&D at $244 million,
up dramatically from $153 million in 2006 (see Table
and Figure 3). Biomass R&D would climb 22 percent to $244 million, nearly
triple last year’s funding, while solar energy R&D would total $180 million,
up 13 percent from 2007 and more than double the $82 million in 2006. The Senate
would turn a requested cut in wind energy R&D into a 17 percent increase to
$58 million, and would save geothermal R&D from proposed elimination with
a $25 million appropriation. The Senate would also restore funding to the now-dormant
hydropower program with $10 million. Also proposed for a big increase is nuclear
energy R&D, a renewable energy technology funded in a separate account, up
26 percent to $139 million in 2008. These programs were heavily earmarked in the
recent past to 2006, and after a one-year moratorium earmarks reappear in the
2008 Senate bill, though they are now in a separate account and would not impact
the above totals. Of the earmarks for renewable energy and energy conservation
in the Senate bill, $56 million would go to R&D projects (see Table). The Senate joins the House in once again reversing
proposed cuts in many energy conservation and fossil energy R&D programs,
as in 2007. The Senate would allocate
$618 million for fossil energy R&D, up a dramatic 25 percent instead of a
27 percent requested cut. The Senate would boost coal R&D funding with a $550
million appropriation, up 29 percent, including $88 million for the FutureGen
program to develop a carbon-neutral, coal-fired electricity and hydrogen production
plant. Funding for the Clean Coal Power Initiative program to develop cleaner
coal-based power plants would also increase from $60 million to $88 million. The
House and the Senate would both add $53 million to the request for carbon sequestration
R&D to bring the 2008 total to $132 million, double the funding the program
had in 2006. At the same time, the House and the Senate would once again reverse
the proposed eliminations of the oil R&D and gas R&D programs. The key
difference between the House and the Senate is that the House would agree to DOE’s
request to block $50 million in mandatory funding for an ultra-deepwater and unconventional
natural gas and other petroleum research fund that was created in the Energy Policy
Act of 2005 for a 2007 start. Congress declined to block 2007 funding, so DOE
and the consortium selected to manage the effort recently finalized a 10-year
contract for this research effort, paid for out of oil and gas royalty fees. The
House would block 2008 funding in order to shift money to other programs, while
so far the Senate has not touched this program, thus adding $50 million to 2008
Fossil Energy spending. 
Figure 3. (click on the image for
PDF)
The Energy Conservation portfolio is now part
of the Energy Supply and Conservation program, and both the House and Senate would
provide increases instead of proposed cuts for its component Vehicle Technologies,
Building Technologies and Industrial Technologies parts. The Senate’s increases
would be so large that they would mostly reverse the past five years’ worth of
steep cuts in these programs (see Figure 3), reflecting the Senate’s insistence
on a balanced energy R&D portfolio. DOE Defense R&D DOE and its predecessors have
long had responsibility for managing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, supplying
nuclear reactors to the Navy, and dealing with the environmental consequences
of nuclear weapons work. DOE’s defense R&D to address these responsibilities
would gain 5.1 percent or $190 million to $3.9 billion in 2008 in the Senate
(see Table). The core Weapons Activities program, which funds science-based alternatives
to nuclear testing in order to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, would
receive $2.7 billion in the Senate for R&D (up 2.9 percent) instead of a cut
in the House. The
DOE proposal to initiate research on a new generation of nuclear weapons has been
opposed by Congress so far, and the House Energy-Water bill makes that opposition
emphatic by zeroing out funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) project
to explore new warhead designs for use with existing nuclear weapons. The Senate,
while it expresses reservations about the project, would keep it alive with $66
million, $23 million than requested but still nearly double the current funding
level. DOE recently selected Lawrence Livermore to design the RRW, but the project
still faces continuing skepticism in Congress over whether the U.S.
needs new warheads. Congress
would provide large boosts to nonproliferation R&D and environmental cleanup
R&D. The nonproliferation and verification R&D program would receive
$322 million in the Senate (see Table), up 6.2 percent from the current year,
while the House would provide even more. The environmental management R&D
program to develop better cleanup technologies for nuclear waste from six decades
of nuclear weapons making would receive $55 million in the Senate, more than double
the current funding level of $21 million; the House would provide an unprecedented
$108 million. Outlook and Next Steps The
full Senate is expected to debate and approve the Energy-Water bill sometime in
July, although this could slip into September because of a crush of other Senate
business. The House is expected to take up its version next week. Congress will
try to send a final version of the bill to President Bush before the October 1
start of FY 2008. The President has threatened to veto any 2008 appropriations
bill that exceeds his request, as the Senate version does by $1.8 billion, so
the bill may have to go through several rewrites and revotes before it can become
law. -
July 12, 2007
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
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