Unable to make progress
on fiscal year (FY) 2003 appropriations, the 107th Congress recessed
for the November elections and plans to return on November 12 for a
'lame-duck' session. [After the elections, in which the Republican Party
regained control of the Senate for next year's 108th Congress, Republican
leaders cut short the lame-duck session and put off appropriations action
again until January when both chambers will be under Republican control.]
Although FY 2003 started on October 1, only 2 of the 13 appropriations
bills, covering defense spending, have been signed into law. The defense
bills provide record increases for federal defense R&D. The 11 nondefense
appropriations bills are all far from completion. Although the House
and Senate have each drafted initial versions of most of the nondefense
bills and would mostly provide increases for nondefense R&D programs,
until these bills are signed into law all domestic programs will have
to operate at last year's (FY 2002) funding levels through a series
of continuing resolutions (CRs; temporary appropriations bills). [The
current CR lasts until January 11, but more will be necessary. It is
increasingly likely that the FY 2003 appropriations process will not
conclude until late January, February, or even later in 2003.]
The President's
request for all discretionary spending (including defense) is $750 billion,
and he has repeatedly insisted that he will veto any appropriations
bills that could cause the total to exceed that amount. The House is
working with a $755 billion total, but has found it impossible to write
appropriations bills capable of winning a House majority while staying
within the total. The House has finally drafted 9 of the 11 nondefense
bills and approved 3 of them, but two of the largest domestic bills
have not even been drafted. The Senate total is $771 billion, $21 billion
more than the President's request; the higher total has made it possible
to draft all 13 appropriations bills, but the Senate has been unable
to move forward. The full Senate has approved only 1 nondefense bill
because the Senate floor schedule has been consumed with debates on
homeland security legislation, authorization for military action against
Iraq, drought and other disaster relief, and other non-budget issues.
[In the 108th Congress, Congress will have a clean legislative slate
and will be able to focus immediately on appropriations if it so chooses;
also, the strong performance of Republicans in the November elections,
attributed in large part to President Bush's active campaigning for
Republican candidates, will provide the President with greater leverage
to bring the appropriations process to a close at his requested spending
levels. A Republican-controlled Senate may also be more amenable to
bringing its discretionary totals more in line with the President and
the House.]
FY 2003 R&D in Senate and House Appropriations
Although the
House has drafted 11 of the 13 appropriations bills and given final
approval to the 2 bills covering the Department of Defense (DOD), the
House has not yet drafted the bills containing funding for the largest
domestic R&D funding agency (the Department of Health and Human
Services) and the Departments of Commerce and Education. The Senate,
however, has drafted all 13 appropriations bills and thus has at least
provided initial action on the entire federal R&D portfolio and
final action on DOD. This analysis focuses mostly on Senate action on
R&D appropriations, and the tables in this analysis provide details
of Senate R&D appropriations. Details of House action are provided
when available; the tables for House action on R&D contain blank
rows for agencies that have not seen initial House action. [In the 108th
Congress which convenes in January, however, the entire appropriations
process will have to start over. All bills left over from the previous
Congress will have to be re-introduced.]
The funding levels
in the FY 2003 House and Senate columns, except for DOD, are the most
recent proposals from each chamber. The DOD funding levels are final
FY 2003 levels. All other agencies, until final FY 2003 appropriations
are signed into law, are currently running on FY 2002 funding levels.
- The Senate is set to provide a record increase to the federal R&D
portfolio and would bring federal R&D to an all-time high of $117.1
billion in FY 2003 (see Table 1).
The Senate proposal would be an unprecedented $14.3 billion (or 13.9
percent) more than the $102.8 billion FY 2002 total. The Senate would
provide $5.7 billion more than the Bush Administration’s request of
$111.4 billion, mostly because of a $4.3 billion addition to the DOD
request.
- The lion’s share of the Senate increase would go to defense R&D and
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Congress has already finalized
a $9.1 billion or 18.4 percent record-setting boost for Department of
Defense (DOD) R&D to $58.8 billion, bringing DOD
R&D above its FY 1987 peak Cold War funding level to a new all-time
high. DOD weapons systems development would account for nearly all
of the increase, but DOD’s “S&T” activities would climb 13.5 percent
to $11.7 billion. The Senate would complete NIH’s
five-year doubling plan with a 16 percent boost to $27.3 billion
for the NIH budget ($26.4 billion for NIH R&D), slightly more than
the request; the R&D increase would be $3.7 billion or 16.4 percent.
- The remaining agencies in the federal R&D portfolio would receive
smaller increases. The Senate would provide $1.2 billion more than
FY 2002 for a total of $27.9 billion for nondefense
R&D excluding NIH, a 4.4 percent increase. While the increase would
be small, it would be an improvement over the Bush Administration request,
which would have cut nondefense R&D excluding
NIH below FY 2002. The Senate would start the National Science
Foundation’s (NSF) R&D on a five-year doubling track with an
11.9 percent increase to $3.9 billion. Most of the other R&D funding
agencies would receive increases; the exceptions (Department of Transportation
and U.S. Department of Agriculture) are because these agencies’ FY 2002
R&D budgets were inflated with one-time emergency appropriations
to respond to last year’s terrorist attacks.
- The House is well on its way to matching the Senate’s generosity for R&D
(see Table 2), despite its lower discretionary
total. Although the House has not yet acted on NIH, Commerce, and Education,
the House has joined the Senate in giving final approval to DOD’s record-setting
R&D portfolio. The House would also start NSF R&D portfolio
on a five-year doubling track with a 14.5 percent increase to $4.0
billion, exceeding the Senate total. The House would also provide substantial
increases for R&D in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA; $10.9 billion, up 6.9 percent) and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA; $628 million, up 8.3 percent). One notable exception would
be R&D in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, which
would fall 0.3 percent to $3.0 billion in the House proposal.
- The Senate would provide large increases for basic and applied research
in FY 2003. The Senate would provide $53.6 billion for research
(basic and applied), an increase of $5.2 billion or 10.7 percent that
would represent a record federal research investment (see Table
3). The percentage increase would be smaller than the 13.9 percent
increase to total R&D because Congress would provide even larger
percentage increases to DOD development. Nearly two-thirds of the research
increase would go to NIH research (up $3.2 billion or 14.4 percent to
$25.5 billion). NIH would make up 47 percent of the total federal research
portfolio, a proportion that has been increasing over the years. NSF
research would increase 14.9 percent to $3.7 billion in what could
be the first year of a five-year doubling plan to match the NIH doubling
plan. Nearly all of the other R&D funding agencies would also receive
increases in research funding. For basic research alone, the Senate
would provide an estimated $26.0 billion (up 10.7 percent); NIH would
make up a majority (55 percent) of federal basic research.
- The House would match the Senate’s increases for basic and applied research
in action so far (see Table 4). Congress
has given final approval to an 8.9 percent increase in DOD research
(“6.1”,“6.2”, and medical research) to $6.4
billion. The House would exceed the Senate’s allocation for NSF research
with a 15.2 percent increase to $3.7 billion, and would also boost EPA
R&D (up 8.3 percent) and NASA R&D (up 15.5 percent). The House
would cut DOE research by 0.4 percent, however ($5.1 billion), because
of proposed budget cuts to DOE’s Office of
Science. The House has not acted on appropriations for NIH, the largest
sponsor of federal research.
- The “FS&T budget” would increase by $6.4 billion or 12.1 percent to
$58.9 billion in Senate action so far (see Table
5). The Federal Science and Technology (FS&T) budget is a collection
of selected R&D and non-R&D programs that emphasize basic and
applied research and the creation of new knowledge and technologies.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) created the FS&T budget
as a tracking device to more easily track the federal S&T investment
through the budget process compared to R&D, and to exclude the large
DOD weapons systems development investment. As with the R&D portfolio,
most agencies’ FS&T programs would receive increases in the Senate
plan except for agencies with large FY 2002 emergency appropriations.
The House, in action so far, would match most of the Senate-proposed
increases for FS&T.
- Proposals for a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would rearrange
the federal R&D portfolio in FY 2003. [In November, Congress
gave final approval to the creation of DHS, which will consolidate federal
government counter-terrorism and homeland security agencies into a new
cabinet-level department. The new DHS could have a R&D portfolio
of up to $800 million in FY 2003. DHS will take in only small R&D
programs currently located in USDA, the Department of Transportation
(DOT), and the Department of Energy (DOE) but NOT the bioterrorism R&D
programs in NIH. The DHS will also house a new Homeland Security Advanced
Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) to fund R&D on homeland security
technologies.] (Details of R&D in the new DHS can be found in a
separate DHS analysis on the AAAS R&D
web site.)
Agency Highlights in FY 2003 Senate and House R&D Appropriations
(For details
on individual agency appropriations, please see the agency R&D Funding
Updates on the AAAS R&D Web site. (The on-line
version of this document contains links.) Updates are available for
all 10 major R&D funding agencies for the Senate, and 8 agencies (excluding NIH and Commerce) for the
House; there is also a DOD Funding Update reflecting
final FY 2003 appropriations. Some figures in these earlier analyses
may differ from the figures presented in this document; supplementals
and some other minor adjustments over the past three months are incorporated
in funding figures throughout this analysis, but may not have been included
in earlier Updates.)
- The Senate
would complete the five-year campaign to double the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. The Senate would appropriate
$27.3 billion in FY 2003 for the NIH budget, of which $26.4 billion
would be R&D. The Senate increase would be slightly above the Administration
requested increase. NIH support of bioterrorism
R&D would increase five-fold to reach $1.5 billion in FY 2003, up
from $275 million, and would stay in NIH rather than be transferred
to the new DHS as proposed by the Administration. Most of the new bioterrorism
funds would go to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID), which would receive a boost of 47.1 percent in its budget to
$3.7 billion. The Senate would more than double Buildings and Facilities
to $633 million, including funds for bioterrorism-related
security improvements. Most institutes would receive increases between
8 and 12 percent. The House has not yet acted on the NIH budget, and
so nearly all of NIH’s
proposed bioterrorism program, as well as
the completion of the doubling campaign, are on hold until approval
of the final NIH budget.
- Last week,
Congress gave final approval to $58.8 billion for Department
of Defense (DOD) R&D in FY 2003,
an increase of $9.1 billion or 18.4 percent that brings DOD R&D
to an all-time in both current and inflation-adjusted dollars. The previous
peak was in FY 1987 at $54 billion in today’s dollars. DOD basic research
(“6.1”; $1.5 billion, up 6.8 percent) and applied research (“6.2”; $4.5
billion, up 10.8 percent) would receive significant boosts, though smaller
ones than the increases for development. “Science and Technology” (S&T),
encompassing research plus advanced technology development, would exceed
$11 billion for the first time to reach $11.7 billion (up 13.5 percent),
reaching 3.2 percent of the total DOD budget, in contrast to the request’s
2.6 percent. President Bush signed the DOD budget into law on October
23.
- In the
Senate plan, the National Science Foundation’s
(NSF) R&D funding would rise 11.9 percent for a total of
$3.9 billion, including a 14.8 percent boost in the key Research and
Related Activities (R&RA) account which could be the first year
of a five-year doubling effort. The House proposes
an even greater 14.5 percent boost to $4.0 billion, including 15 percent
increases for most of the research directorates. Both the House and
the Senate would reject the proposed transfer of three programs from
EPA, Interior, and Commerce to NSF.
- The Department of Energy’s (DOE)
R&D programs would receive $8.7 billion in FY 2003 from the
Senate, an increase of $384 million or 4.6 percent. There would
be increases slightly above the rate of inflation for science R&D
(up 2.5 percent) and larger increases for defense R&D (up 5.8 percent)
and energy R&D (up 5.7 percent). All would be greater than the request,
especially energy R&D which was proposed for an 11 percent cut.
Most Science programs would receive funding only slightly above FY 2002
funding levels. The House would provide less ($8.5 billion, up 2.1 percent)
and would cut funding for the Office of Science by 0.3 percent and would
restrain growth in DOE’s defense R&D (up
2.0 percent).
- The
Senate would provide $15.2 billion for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) budget in FY 2003,
$298 million or 2.0 percent more than FY 2002; the
House would provide $100 million more for a total of $15.3 billion.
NASA’s R&D funding would rise 6.3 percent in the Senate and 6.9
percent in the House, including increases of greater than 10 percent
to the Science, Aeronautics, and Technology (SAT). The House and the
Senate would go along with NASA’s request to shift money from the International
Space Station to NASA’s other R&D programs. Space Science would
receive $3.5 billion (up 21.8 percent) in the Senate and $3.6 billion
(up 24.0 percent) in the House; NASA requested most of the increase,
but the House and the Senate would add $105 million for the Pluto-Kuiper
Belt mission that NASA had proposed for elimination and the Senate would
also add $40 million for a Europa mission also proposed for elimination. There would
be an additional $126 million in Senate earmarks and $117 million in
House earmarks, partially overlapping, for R&D projects.
- The Department of Commerce’s R&D portfolio
would grow 8.2 percent to $1.2 billion in the Senate plan. The Senate
bill would provide substantial increases for many National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) accounts, for a total of $682 million
(up 12.2 percent). The Senate would reject the proposed transfer of
NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program
to NSF. R&D in the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) would climb 4.4 percent to $513 million. The Senate would reject
the Bush Administration’s proposal to halve the Advanced Technology
Program (ATP) and to eliminate the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP). Instead, the Senate would give level funding to both. The House
has not yet acted on the Commerce budget.
- While
both the House and Senate would be more generous to R&D in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) than the request, each would
result in a cut. The House appropriation would
total $2.1 billion (down 7.4 percent) and the
Senate $2.3 billion (down 2.3 percent). Both the House and Senate
would concur with the request to block the FY 2003 availability of funds
for a mandatory competitive research grants program. The House would
provide $103 million and the Senate $104 million for Special Research
Grants, congressionally earmarked R&D projects totaling 158 in the
House and 177 in the Senate. The National Research Initiative, the main
competitive grants program, would rise from $120 million in FY 2002
to $130 million in the House and $164 million in the Senate. The overall
cuts are due primarily to a sharp decline in the intramural Buildings
and Facilities account, FY 2002 being a flush year because of emergency
appropriations to beef up laboratory security after last fall’s anthrax
attacks.
- In the
Senate plan, the Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) R&D would rise 7.7 percent to $624 million,
including a doubling of the Superfund research program for building
decontamination research related to EPA’s role in cleaning Senate office
buildings of anthrax last fall. The Senate would mostly provide for
EPA’s requested priorities but would add $32 million for 24 congressionally
designated research projects. The House would
provide even slightly more for R&D ($628 million, up 8.3 percent).
- Department of Transportation (DOT)
R&D would fall $94 million or 11.9 percent to $697 million in
the FY 2003 Senate plan, though the total could
be higher at the discretion of the new Transportation Security Administration
(TSA). The House would provide more for TSA
R&D at the outset for a DOT total of $815 million, an increase of
3.1 percent. The FY 2002 total is inflated with one-time emergency appropriations
for aviation security R&D enacted in the aftermath of the September
11 hijackings. [TSA and Coast Guard R&D (total $48 million in the
Senate plan, $152 million in the House) will be transferred to the new
DHS.]
- Both
the House and Senate
would reject proposed cuts in the
Department of the Interior’s R&D and would instead provide
small increases. Although the Administration would have cut R&D
in Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) by 7 percent, the Senate
(up 2.6 percent) and the House (up 2.0 percent) would boost USGS R&D
and would block the proposed transfer of a toxic hydrology program to
NSF.
Policy Context and Budget Outlook
[When it convenes
on January 7, the new 108th Congress will face enormous obstacles in
wrapping up the FY 2003 appropriations process. Although large differences
in spending levels between the House and the Senate are normally resolved
by meeting in the middle or even at the higher figure, President Bush
has insisted on his lower total for discretionary spending, even lower
than the House's total, and has threatened to veto any bills that exceed
his request. At least until now, the Republican majority in the House
has mostly sided with the President. In the new Congress, the new Republican
majority in the Senate may also side with the President, offering the
hope of a resolution to the budget impasse.] The large increase for
DOD R&D is final. The large NIH increase also appears to be safe
because it was in the President's request, but President Bush requested
an overall cut in non-NIH nondefense R&D programs. Thus, the Senate-proposed
funding levels exceeding his request for agencies such as NSF, DOE,
USDA, and NASA may be in jeopardy if House-Senate conference negotiators
are forced to lower their funding levels toward the President's rather
than raising them toward the Senate's; even the House-proposed funding
levels threaten to exceed his limit.
Less certain
than the funding outcome is the end date of the FY 2003 appropriations
process. [Even with the political will to make final decisions, January
is normally a slow legislative month for Congress. But lawmakers will
be mindful that the President's proposed FY 2004 budget will be released
on February 3, and that a possible military campaign in Iraq will require
FY 2003 supplemental defense appropriations. So it is possible that
Congress will make an extraordinary push this year's budget before the
next one comes along. The most likely scenario is that the remaining
11 appropriations bills will be bundled together into one or two omnibus
appropriations bills; if broad-level agreements are reached between
the House, Senate, and the President in January, the details could be
worked out in time for the bills to be signed into law in February.
In the meantime, agencies will continue at FY 2002 funding levels, with
a slim but growing chance that they will have to live at these levels
through March or, in a worst-case scenario, even the full fiscal year
under a year-long continuing resolution.]
(Further AAAS
R&D Funding Updates on the AAAS R&D Web site
will provide up-to-date information on R&D in FY 2003 appropriations.
At the conclusion of FY 2003 appropriations, AAAS will publish an analysis
of R&D in final FY 2003 appropriations in our publication Congressional
Action on R&D in the FY 2003 Budget.)
- October 23, 2002 (revised November 22)
