(This analysis is a preview of the
DOT section in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXXII: Research and Development
FY 2008, a comprehensive look at the President's budget for R&D in FY
2008. This analysis contains revised AAAS estimates of DOT R&D, different
from figures originally presented in the President's budget. More tables and continually
updated supplemental materials on R&D in the FY 2008 budget can be found on
the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
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Department of Transportation’s (DOT) R&D funding would increase 2.4 percent
to $813 million (see Table
II-15) because of requested cuts in aviation R&D combined with increases
for highway R&D.
DOT R&D in the FY 2008 Budget
The
Department of Transportation (DOT) funds a broad range of highway, aviation, traffic
safety, rail, transit, and marine transportation programs. R&D is a relatively
small part of a $67 billion DOT budget and would total $813 million in FY 2008,
a small increase of 2.4 percent or $19 million over the recently finalized 2007
budget that just keeps pace with expected inflation (see Table
II-15). Funding for aviation R&D
would fall, along with R&D on most other transportation modes, but highway
R&D would continue to increase by $49 million to $410 million.
Transportation
funding is unusual in that although funds are appropriated, as they are for other
discretionary programs, minimum funding levels each year are guaranteed by transportation
authorization bills. Transportation appropriators must provide the funds necessary
to meet these guarantees, occasionally adding to them or modifying them, before
appropriating funds for programs outside the authorization bills. Because of congressional
delays in wrapping up 2007 appropriations DOT only received its final 2007 budget
on February 15, 4 ½ months into the fiscal year. DOT’s R&D programs received
far less than requested and a cut compared to 2006. (All figures in this analysis
reflect estimates of final 2007 appropriations as signed into law on February
15.)
DOT
programs are operating under a transportation authorization bill signed into law
in August 2005 that dramatically increases highway R&D funding beginning in
2006 and extending through 2009. Nearly all the funds from the transportation
authorization bill go to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for state and
local road projects, mostly in formula distributions but also in congressionally
designated earmarked projects. FHWA’s R&D portfolio
is a mixture of formula funds for state transportation R&D, earmarked R&D
projects, and intramural research. The highway bill helped FHWA R&D climb
in 2006 and 2007 to record highs. The FY 2008 budget, still based on the multi-year
highway bill, would sustain those increases with a $410 million R&D investment,
an increase of 13.7 percent. Based on past experience, FHWA is unlikely to get
the full increase after Congress allocates some of the proposed increases to other
programs. The surface transportation research portfolio on highway safety, pavement
technologies, highway operations, environmental impacts, and other road topics
would increase $20 million to $136 million in FY 2008. The Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS) portfolio of innovative technologies to improve traffic flow would
also increase dramatically to $84 million, up $20 million. The FHWA budget also
includes state highway R&D, distributed to state and local governments to
support their R&D efforts, with a proposed 5.7 percent increase to $172 million
in the 2008 request.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) R&D
would total $258 million in 2007, a sharp cut of 15 percent or $46 million
that repeats recent attempts to cut aviation R&D. The past two DOT budget
requests have proposed cuts in FAA R&D, but Congress has ended up boosting
FAA’s R&D efforts in a number of aviation-related topics, including weather
research, aircraft safety technology, human factors research, and development
of next-generation technologies to improve aviation system capacity. The FY 2008
request proposes an increase in FAA’s main Research, Engineering, and Development
account, which is mostly focused on aviation safety, but once again proposes steep
cuts in the Facilities and Equipment portfolio of advanced technology development
for next-generation aviation systems.
Figure 1. (click on the image for
PDF)
Outlook and Impacts for the DOT Budget
Because
of large increases for DOT R&D in FY 2001 and FY 2002 responding to the September
11 terrorist attacks on U.S. aviation, DOT’s support for R&D reached a peak
in FY 2002, after adjusting for inflation (see Figure 1). But with the transfer
of aviation security R&D to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), recent
reductions in key programs, and the transfer of the Coast Guard and its R&D
program to DHS, DOT R&D declined sharply in FY 2003 and 2004 before rebounding,
nearly reaching the peak funding level in 2006. The 2006 budget actually exceeded
previous highs, however, after adjusting for the Coast Guard and FAA transfers
to DHS. The 2007 and 2008 budgets would retreat slightly from the 2006 peak.
The
majority of DOT’s R&D is performed by industrial performers and federal laboratories,
with industry performing nearly 40 percent and federal labs 25 percent of all
DOT R&D (see Figure 2). Universities
and colleges perform just 7 percent. Unlike the other large R&D funding agencies,
a large proportion (23 percent) is performed by state and local governments. Most
of this money comes from the FHWA under formula grants.
More
than three-quarters of DOT’s research (excluding development and R&D facilities)
is in the engineering sciences, particularly in civil engineering, but DOT also
is a key federal funding source for research in psychology and environmental sciences.
DOT is only the sixth-largest supporter of engineering research despite its importance
in the DOT portfolio, funding only 4 percent of all federal support for engineering.
The major sponsors of engineering research are the Department of Defense (DOD),
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of
Energy (DOE), with about a quarter each of total federal support, followed by
the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Figure 2. (click on the image for
PDF)
Outlook for the DOT Budget
The
2008 DOT budget now goes to a new Democratic majority in the 110th
Congress, which just last month wrapped up 2007 appropriations. Because of strong
bipartisan support for transportation funding, however, the change in parties
is expected to have little impact on DOT’s R&D. If past patterns hold, some
of the proposed FHWA increases will be chiseled down to allow for more funding
for non-R&D programs, while funding for FAA cuts will be boosted.
(More
materials on R&D in the FY 2008 budget, historical data and charts, and more
information on AAAS Report XXXII: Research and Development FY 2008, can
be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
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March 2, 2007
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
