(This analysis is an update of the August 10 R&D
Earmarks analysis. Please see the August 10
analysis for full information. This update covers developments since
August.)
- As the FY 2006 appropriations process drags on well into
the new fiscal year, Senate appropriators are on a record-setting
pace for R&D earmarks with $1.5 billion so far (see Table
A and Figure 1). House R&D earmarks are lagging behind Senate
levels because of tighter budget targets, but final FY 2006 appropriations
could end up adding House and Senate earmarks together instead of splitting
differences.
- Since August,
the Senate has drafted a Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations
bill containing $520 million in R&D earmarks, bringing the total
to $1.5 billion among all agencies. Like the House, the Senate’s earmarks
are concentrated: four agencies (DOD, $520 million; USDA, $334 million;
DOE, $318 million; and Commerce, $198 million) receive 91 percent of
Senate R&D earmarks, while NIH, NSF, DHS, and other agencies are
earmark-free.
- FY 2006 R&D
earmarks are likely to exceed the $1.9 billion total in 2004 or the
$2.1 billion total in FY 2005 if House and Senate earmarks are combined
in final budgets. In finalizing the USDA budget, congressional negotiators
allocated $334 million for R&D earmarks, more than earlier House
($183 million) and Senate ($292 million) bills had provided.
Figure
1. (click on image for PDF)
FY 2006 R&D Earmarks in FY 2006 Appropriations: Earmarks Pile Up as
Budget Negotiations Stall
As of the first week in November, FY 2006 is already a
month old but the FY 2006 budget is still unfinished. Congress has finalized
just five (of 11) appropriations bills; the House and the Senate are
trying to resolve differences in their respective versions of the others.
For the largest R&D funding agencies, final FY 2006 budgets have
been decided for only four (EPA, and the Departments of the Interior,
Homeland Security, and Agriculture). All other agencies are still waiting
for their final budgets, and are operating through November 18 at FY
2005, House, or Senate funding levels, whichever is lowest, under the
first continuing resolution (CR; a temporary appropriations bill).
The FY 2006 appropriations
bills so far contain numerous congressionally designated, performer-specific
R&D projects (R&D earmarks). House R&D earmarks so far total
$1.2 billion, while the Senate is going higher with $1.5 billion. The
final earmark total will depend on whether negotiators tend to add House
earmarks to Senate earmarks for a larger total, split the difference,
or pick and choose earmarks to get to the lower level; over the years,
appropriators have used all of these strategies to craft final appropriations
bills, depending on the year and on budget conditions for a particular
agency. But in examining the earmarks making it into the final USDA,
Interior, and EPA budgets, final earmarks in FY 2006 are so far coming
in higher than House and Senate levels. (For full details of federal
R&D appropriations so far in the FY 2006 process, please see the October Status Report
on R&D in FY 2006 Appropriations, available on the AAAS
R&D Web site).
- R&D earmarks in House appropriations bills total $1.2 billion in
FY 2006. Although these projects amount to only 0.9 percent of total
R&D, they are concentrated in a few key agencies and programs (see
Table A). Four agencies (the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA; $334 million), the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA; $50 million), the Department of Energy (DOE; $167
million) and the Department of Defense (DOD; $563 million) receive 95
percent of the House’s R&D earmarks, far more concentrated than
in previous years (see Figure 1).
- The Senate would provide even more earmarks, $1.5 billion so far (see
Table A and Figure 2), representing 1.1
percent of R&D appropriations so far. The
Senate would earmark $198 million of the NOAA R&D portfolio, a record,
and would also heavily earmark DOE’s energy R&D portfolio and the USDA extramural research
portfolio. R&D earmarks would be nearly 25 percent of NOAA R&D
and USDA’s extramural research program, and nearly 15 percent of DOE’s energy R&D portfolio.
- USDA R&D earmarks total $334 million in the recently finalized
FY 2006 USDA budget, higher than either the earlier House or Senate
versions of the USDA budget. Many of the earmarks are in the nearly
entirely earmarked Special Research Grants program, funded at $128 million
for 202 projects, all but 3 of which are earmarked for specific performers.
Earmarks are found in other parts of USDA’s Cooperative State Research,
Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), in intramural research projects
in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and for intramural R&D
facilities construction. In FY 2006, R&D earmarks total 26 percent
of all extramural R&D in the Cooperative State Research, Education,
and Extension Service (CSREES), making these a significant drain on
resources that might have gone to competitively awarded research grants.
Although the Administration proposed $250 million for the competitive
National Research Initiative within an earmark-free budget, Congress
chiseled the request down to $183 million to make room for earmarked
projects.
- Senate appropriators
drafted their version of the DOD FY 2006 budget in late September
and earmarked $520 million in R&D projects out of a total $72.4
billion portfolio. The House version contains $563 million in R&D
earmarks. Clearly, in a fiscal environment where defense spending is
half of all discretionary spending and the only mission to receive a
large increase, DOD is an attractive target for earmarks. The earmarks
are mostly small ($10 million or less) projects, but significantly most
are for research rather than development or R&D facilities construction,
squeezing basic research and applied research budgets. In the Senate
DOD bill, earmarks for “6.2” (applied research) earmarks are $156 million,
or 3 percent of the total because of a large number of medical research
projects. But earmarks in the “6.4” or higher (development) categories
of DOD R&D are $179 million, only 0.3 percent of the total portfolio.
Figure
2. (click on image for PDF)
(Other agencies’ budgets have not changed since the August
earmarks analysis. For information on other R&D funding agencies,
definitions of earmarks, and methodology, please see the earlier analysis.
)
Conclusions
Even though it
is November, it is still difficult to see where the FY 2006 appropriations
process is headed. House and Senate appropriators are far apart on the
budgets of key R&D funding agencies, not just in spending totals
but also in earmarks. So far, appropriators have gone above earlier
House and Senate earmark totals when crafting final USDA, EPA, and Interior
budgets, but there is no guarantee they will continue to do so in the
fall because each appropriations bill has its own dynamic, with different
negotiators and different targets. Complicating matters are proposals
by fiscal conservatives to cut down on earmarks or even rescind ones
that have already been approved to offset billions of dollars in emergency
spending for hurricane disaster relief. Although these proposals have
yet to gain traction, they may yet have an impact on budget negotiations
over the next several weeks.
- November 3, 2005
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
science_policy@aaas.org
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
