Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee drafted
an FY 2002 VA-HUD appropriations bill that would provide a modest budget
increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Senate would
provide NSF with $4.7 billion in FY 2002, $256 million or 5.8 percent
more than FY 2001. This would be more than the Administration's request
of $4.5 billion, though less than a House committee's proposed budget
of $4.8 billion. In the Senate plan, NSF's R&D funding
would rise 4.0 percent for a total of $3.4 billion. The House is considering
an even larger 8.5 percent increase (see Table).
Both the House and the Senate would exceed the request, which called
for a slight decline in NSF R&D funding. All three plans would reserve
the largest increases for NSF's non-R&D programs in education and
human resources.
The Senate FY 2002 VA-HUD bill would provide $84 billion
for discretionary programs. The bill funds science agencies including
NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), and non-R&D programs for veterans and housing. The President
requested $83 billion for the bill's programs, and thus the Senate had
more money to allocate for science programs than the request. The House
version of the bill is expected to total $85 billion (details of House
appropriations for NSF will be available shortly).
There was dismay among NSF advocates in April when
the Bush Administration requested only a $56 million or 1.3 percent
increase in the total NSF budget, after a 13 percent increase in FY
2001 led to high expectations of substantial increases in the FY 2002
budget. Because the Bush Administration chose to emphasize a large increase
for education and human resources programs in NSF, NSF's R&D programs
were actually proposed to decline 1.6 percent in the request. The Senate
would award an increase to NSF's budget and to NSF's R&D: the Senate
VA-HUD bill would exceed the request with $4.7 billion to NSF, an increase
of $256 million or 5.8 percent. NSF's R&D funding, which excludes
NSF's education and training activities and overhead costs, would total
$3.4 billion in the Senate plan, an increase of 4.0 percent or $131
million (see Table). This increase is
sure to cause some disappointment, however: Senator Barbara Mikulski
(D-MD), the chairman of the Senate VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee,
and Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), the ranking member, are vocal proponents
of a plan to double the NSF budget in five years, and NSF supporters
had expected the two to propose far greater increases for NSF in their
bill.
The Research and Related Activities (R&RA)
account, which funds most of NSF's R&D, would receive $3.5 billion,
5.1 percent or $172 million more than FY 2001 in contrast to a requested
cut from the Bush Administration. The Senate bill would generally follow
NSF's stated priorities on how to distribute the funds among the research
directorates, although there would be additions in several areas. The
big winner would be Integrated Activities, which would receive $108
million for an increase of $10 million or 10.5 percent. The Senate would
add $25 million to the request of $50 million for the Major Research
Instrumentation program to bring funding back to the FY 2001 level.
This program provides funds to address research equipment needs of research
institutions, mostly universities; the Senate bill contains language
directing NSF to use the additional $25 million specifically to fund
the instrumentation needs of smaller research institutions. The Senate
would also boost funding for the Plant Genome Research program, a congressionally
initiated program from a few years ago, to $75 million, $10 million
more than the request and FY 2001.
The Senate appropriation would boost by $25 million
NSF's participation as the lead agency in the multi-agency in the Networking
and Information Technology R&D initiative of basic, long-term
IT research. The request proposed flat funding for NSF's role in the
initiative. The initiative is currently funded at $1.9 billion across
several agencies. The Senate would also boost NSF's lead role in the
multi-agency Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative from
$150 million in FY 2001 to $199 million in FY 2002, an increase of one
third. Other agencies' contributions to these initiatives have not been
drafted yet.
The Major Research Equipment (MRE) account,
which funds construction of large-scale scientific facilities, would
receive $109 million, less than the $122 million FY 2001 funding level
but $13 million more than the request. The amount above the request
would go toward construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)
radio telescope; the request proposed to fund the project out of R&RA
instead of Major Research Equipment, but the Senate would fund the project
in MRE and would thus free up R&RA funds for more astronomy research.
Within MRE. the Senate would provide the requested $55 million for the
Terascale Computing Systems project, part of the Information Technology
R&D initiative.
NSF's Education and Human Resources programs
would receive $872 million, an amount equal to the request and $87 million
or 11.0 percent above FY 2001. The heart of the Administration's request
was $200 million for a new Math and Science Partnerships program to
encourage academic institutions and schools to work together to improve
math and science education. Although half of the program was proposed
as new money, the other half would have come out of existing EHR programs.
The Senate would trim the request for the program to $130 million, restoring
funding to other EHR programs. The Senate would expect NSF to rely on
revenues from H-1B visa fees for another $60 million for the partnerships.
The Senate again takes NSF to task for not providing
sufficient support for smaller research institutions and minorities,
and would add funding for NSF programs in these areas. The Senate would
boost funding for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research (EPSCoR) from $75 million to $85 million and add another $10
million to fund the Office of Innovative Partnerships. Both programs
assist research institutions and states that have traditionally been
underrepresented in federal R&D funding. The Senate also encourages
consideration of an application from Rhode Island to be eligible for
the EPSCoR program.
The House and Senate versions of the VA-HUD bill are
due for floor debate and approval before the August congressional recess.
A House-Senate conference committee to produce the final version of
the bill is not expected to meet until September. The House appropriation
for NSF is higher than the Senate, so it is likely that the final funding
levels for NSF will be higher than the Senate-proposed levels.
- July 25, 2001
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
science_policy@aaas.org
http://www.aaas.org/spp/R&D
