(This analysis is a preview of the
DOT section in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXXIII: Research and Development
FY 2009, a comprehensive look at the President's budget for R&D in FY
2009. 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 2009 budget can be found on
the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
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The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) R&D funding would increase 9.9
percent or $81 million to $902 million in fiscal year (FY) 2009 (see Table
II-15) because of large requested increases for aviation R&D and highway
R&D.
DOT R&D in the FY 2009 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 $57 billion DOT budget but would increase nearly 10 percent to
$902 million in FY 2009, an $81 million increase primarily for aviation programs
but also for highway R&D (see Table II-15). R&D funding would increase even as the
total DOT budget would fall 10 percent to $57 billion, though primarily because
of proposed rescissions in previously appropriated funds.
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. 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 2009 budget, still based on the multi-year highway bill, would sustain those
increases with a $393 million R&D investment, an increase of $20 million or
5.4 percent. The surface transportation research portfolio on highway safety,
pavement technologies, highway operations, environmental impacts, and other road
topics would increase $23 million to $167 million in FY 2009 with increases across
the board. The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) portfolio of innovative
technologies to improve traffic flow would also increase to $51 million, up $7
million. The FHWA budget also includes state highway R&D, distributed to state
and local governments to support their R&D efforts, but funding for these
state funds would decline $11 million or 6.4 percent to $156 million in the 2009
request.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) R&D
would receive a large increase of 24 percent in 2009 to $335 million, a reversal
of the past three DOT budget requests which proposed cuts in FAA R&D. The
FAA funds a number of R&D efforts on 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 2009
request focuses its increases on the Next Generation Air Transportation System
(NextGen), a suite of technologies and operating systems envisioned to transition
the U.S. civil
aviation system from radar-based to satellite-based navigation and to boost capacity
while preserving safety. Increases related to NextGen would boost funding for
both FAA’s main Research, Engineering, and Development
(RE&D) account and also the Facilities and Equipment portfolio of advanced
technology development for next-generation aviation systems. The RE&D NextGen
increases would focus on environmental research, especially on aircraft technologies
that would reduce emissions and noise.
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), 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 retreated slightly from the 2006 peak, but the 2009
request, if enacted, would be the largest DOT R&D budget in history for the
programs that are currently a part of DOT.
The
majority of DOT’s R&D is performed by industrial performers and federal laboratories,
with industry performing half and federal labs a third 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
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
2009 DOT budget is likely to be received favorably in Congress, although there
are concerns about the proposed rescissions of funds that make the total DOT budget
appear to fall sharply. Because of increased congressional concerns about improving
air-traffic capacity and boosting infrastructure investments, the R&D request
should be favorably received on Capitol Hill, but some of the R&D increases
could be chiseled down to allow for more funding for non-R&D programs.
(More
materials on R&D in the FY 2009 budget, historical data and charts, and more
information on AAAS Report XXXIII: Research and Development FY 2009, can
be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
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February 13, 2008
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
