(This report is a summary of AAAS estimates and analyses
of federal R&D appropriations in the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill,
and includes data on final 2008 appropriations. This report was updated
January 7 - updates in [ ] .)
Congress
gave final approval on December 19 to an omnibus appropriations bill combining
the 11 unfinished 2008 appropriations bills, [which the President signed into
law on December 26 to bring the 2008 budget process to a close.] The $550 billion
bill, which includes regular funding for domestic programs, emergency funding
for veterans programs and other priorities, and $70 billion in emergency war funding,
is a sharp retreat from congressional plans over most of this year to add as much
as $22 billion to the President’s request for domestic spending. Instead of allowing
domestic spending to at least keep pace with inflation as planned, appropriators
responded to promised and actual vetoes over the extra spending by keeping overall
fiscal year (FY) 2008 funding for most domestic programs flat with last year.
As a result, the federal investment in research and development (R&D) in FY
2008 would decline dramatically from earlier congressional plans. Federal funding
for basic and applied research would decline in real terms for the fourth year
in a row. And although most R&D funding agencies would receive increases,
several key R&D agencies would lose ground to inflation, and bipartisan efforts
to boost funding for physical sciences in three key agencies would fall well short.
Figure 1. (click on image for PDF)
Highlights of Federal R&D in Final FY
2008 Appropriations
Congress
concluded its work for the year on December 19 with final passage of the 2008
omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2764), with disappointing results for the federal
investment in R&D given raised expectations for most of the year. Although
the 110th Congress started 2007 with high hopes of completing the 12
2008 appropriations bills individually, on time, and with $22 billion in domestic
spending on top of the President’s requested cuts, one veto, several threatened
vetoes, numerous procedural delays, and several internal congressional struggles
later Congress produced an omnibus bill funding domestic programs overall close
to the President’s request after the usual last-minute frenzied negotiations behind
closed doors. The federal investment in research and development (R&D) in
2008 would decline dramatically from earlier congressional plans. The federal
investment in basic and applied research for FY 2008 would gain just 1.1 percent
to $57.5 billion, less than inflation and far less than earlier congressional
appropriations (see Table 2). The federal research
investment would decline in real terms for the fourth year in a row (see Figure
2). Total federal R&D (including development) would increase 1.2 percent to
$142.7 billion (see Table 1). In jettisoning most
of the $22 billion in additional domestic spending from earlier appropriations
bills, the omnibus bill would subtract roughly $2 billion from earlier appropriations
for nondefense R&D. Although most R&D funding agencies would still receive
increases (see Figure 1), several key R&D agencies would fall behind the 2.4
percent expected inflation rate.
Funding
for basic research in the physical sciences, a key element of various plans to
sustain U.S. economic
competitiveness, would fall well short of a planned doubling path over the next
decade. The omnibus bill would take away most of the requested increases for the
three physical sciences agencies in the American Competitiveness Initiative (the
Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, the National Science Foundation
(NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratories)
in order to reverse requested cuts in medical research, energy R&D,
and environmental research. NSF would see only a 1 percent increase in its R&D
funding instead of a larger increase, while most National Institutes of Health
(NIH) institutes would get flat funding at FY 2007 levels instead of requested
cuts. A 15 percent requested increase for DOE's Office
of Science would be trimmed to just 5 percent to turn requested cuts in DOE’s
energy R&D programs such as carbon sequestration, biomass, and solar energy
into a 23 percent increase. The omnibus bill would restore funding for climate
change science and other environmental research in several agencies.
Figure 2. (click on image for PDF)
(This analysis features AAAS estimates of R&D
in the final FY 2008 Defense appropriations bill (enacted in November) and the
FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill, [cleared by Congress on December 19 and signed
by President Bush on December 26 as Public Law 110-161.] All FY 2008 figures exclude
$3.9 billion in DOD development funds requested as part of the war supplemental;
Congress will consider these appropriations in early 2008, after which they will
be added to the FY 2008 figures.)
- Federal funding for R&D totals $142.7 billion
in FY 2008, an increase of $1.6 billion or 1.2 percent (see Table
1). Although federal R&D appears to fall in real terms for the first
time in a decade (see Figure 1), Congress will add as much as $3.9 billion in
development funds for the Department of Defense (DOD) when it takes up a 2008
war supplemental bill in the new year, so federal R&D could exceed $145 billion
to hit another all-time high before the fiscal year is done.
- Federal support of basic and applied research
would decline in inflation-adjusted terms for the fourth year in a row in 2008
(see Table 2 and Figure 3). Federal support
of research (excluding development and R&D facilities) in FY 2008 would
gain just 1.1 percent to $57.5 billion, less than inflation and far less than
earlier congressional appropriations. Although
earlier House and Senate appropriations would have boosted research funding well
above last year, Congress abandoned these plans after one veto and several threatened
vetoes over funding levels that exceeded the President’s request. The research
total would be $2.0 billion above the President’s request, but almost entirely
due to the addition of research earmarks, particularly for DOD. The 1.1 percent
increase over 2007 for research would be evenly distributed so that most agencies
would see flat or slightly increasing research portfolios, but at the cost of
trimming large requested increases in NSF and DOE Science research to reverse
proposed cuts to other agencies’ research portfolios, such as NIH.
Figure 3. (click on image for PDF)
- Congress falls far short of the large requested
increases for the three agencies in the Bush Administration’s American Competitiveness
Initiative (ACI). Although earlier House and Senate appropriations would have
matched or exceeded the R&D requests for NSF, DOE’s Office of Science, and
Commerce’s NIST laboratories, the reduced domestic spending totals needed to avoid
a presidential veto prompted Congress to take away the ACI increases. NSF
R&D would gain just 1.1 percent to $4.5 billion instead of the 9 percent increases
in earlier House and Senate bills, while the total NSF budget of $6.0 billion
(up 2.0 percent) would do slightly better because of boosts to NSF’s education
programs. DOE Science R&D would increase 5 percent to $3.7 billion instead
of the earlier 18 percent increases, but several program areas including fusion
and high-energy physics would see cuts. Funding for NIST intramural laboratory
research would fall slightly instead of gaining 13 percent or more so that Congress
could save NIST’s extramural R&D programs from decimation. As a result, the
ACI vision of doubling funding for these three agencies
between 2006 and 2016 is far off track.
- Congressional appropriators managed to reverse
proposed cuts in many R&D programs, especially for R&D programs in the
key congressional priority areas of biomedical research, environmental research
(particularly climate change), and energy R&D. Congress added $600 million
to a requested cut in biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH); the resulting increase would be a modest 0.9 percent increase in percentage
terms for a total NIH budget of $29.5 billion, $800 million less than an earlier
appropriation the President vetoed (see Figure 1). Congress would turn steep requested
cuts into modest increases for environmental research programs, including R&D
in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; up 3.4 percent to $583 million) and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; up 7.6 percent to $573 million).
Total environmental R&D would rise 4.0 percent to $2.1 billion instead of
falling 3 percent as requested (see Table 3).
In addition, appropriators would boost climate change research in other agency
budgets, including boosts for earth observing satellites and supporting research
at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). And instead of requested
cuts to energy R&D in 2008 after a banner year in 2007, Congress would keep
increasing DOE energy R&D spending dramatically, by 23.0 percent to $1.9 billion
for the renewable energy, fossil fuels, and energy conservation programs (see
Figure 1).
- Congress would provide increases for every
major R&D funding agency except DOD and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA; see Figure 1), though NIH and NSF would fall well short of expected
inflation and other agencies would see increases only because of added R&D
earmarks, leaving non-earmarked R&D funding down from 2007.
- Although ACI increases would fall short of Administration
requests, Congress would support the Administration’s other R&D priorities
in the development of new spacecraft and expanded R&D facilities support.
NASA R&D funding would gain 5.7 percent or $670 million to $12.5 billion;
appropriators trimmed the request slightly but still provided $3.0 billion (up
6.2 percent) for the Constellation Systems program to develop the next generation
of human space vehicles. Total development funding would lag inflation with a
0.5 percent increase to $80.6 billion (see Table 1
and Figure 2), but will eventually show a large increase when Congress adds in
DOD war-related supplemental development funding. In construction of large R&D
facilities, Congress endorses NASA’s proposed 26 percent boost in construction
of the International Space Station. Other proposed boosts in R&D facilities
funding at DOD, NSF, and NIST win congressional support to bring total R&D
facilities and large equipment funding to $4.6 billion (up 16 percent; see Table
1). Some facilities projects face the ax, however; Congress zeroed out the U.S. contribution to the multinational International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project and reduced the requests for
several other DOE Science facilities.
- Although innovation legislation to sustain
U.S. economic competitiveness was enacted in August,
2008 appropriations for its programs fall well short of authorized levels. In August, the President and Congress enacted comprehensive
innovation legislation, the 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007
or America COMPETES Act (Public Law 110-69). As with the ACI, this authorization
bill responds to the National Academies’ Rising Above
the Gathering Storm report and other reports calling on the U.S. to make a renewed commitment to encouraging science
and engineering-based innovation for future U.S. prosperity. The bill authorized increased funding
for the three ACI agencies on a track to double over seven to ten years, but appropriations
for DOE Science, the NIST laboratories, and NSF fall well short in 2008. The bill
created or reauthorized numerous science and math education programs at federal
agencies, but 2008 appropriations fall well short of authorized levels. The bill
also created an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) to fund
high-risk, high-reward energy research in DOE, which the omnibus bill does not
fund. On the brighter side, the bill created a Technology Innovation Program (TIP)
to replace the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) at NIST, which the omnibus bill
does fund.
R&D in support of most federal missions would
increase in 2008, but especially energy R&D. Nondefense R&D would gain 3.6 percent to reach
$61.0 billion in 2008 (see Table 3), buoyed by
increases for space-related development, energy R&D, and health research.
Space R&D would gain 6.7 percent to $11.9 billion, mostly to fund accelerated
development of the next generation of human spacecraft. General science R&D
would gain a modest 2.9 percent to $8.2 billion, well under the request because
of trimmed increases for NSF and DOE Science. Administration of justice R&D
would soar 28 percent to $943 million because of increases and program shifts
in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) R&D portfolio. Energy R&D
would climb 22 percent to $2.0 billion, mostly from dramatic expansions of DOE
energy programs for the second year in a row. Among missions, only transportation
R&D would decline, by 1.0 percent to $1.5 billion, because of continuing cuts
in NASA’s aeronautics research. Defense R&D appears to decline 0.5 percent
to $81.8 billion, but after Congress adds as much as $3.9 billion in defense development
funds in early 2008 defense R&D will show another year of increases.
- Congress has resumed
earmarking R&D projects in FY 2008 appropriations, after a one-year moratorium
on most nondefense earmarks in 2007. [The AAAS analysis
of R&D earmarks in FY 2008 appropriations shows that the omnibus bill
would designate $939 million for congressionally designated performer-specific
R&D projects in 2008 (excluding DOD), down from $1.5 billion in 2006 and also
down from previous years (see Figure 4). DOE ($348 million) and USDA ($269 million)
are the most heavily earmarked domestic R&D agencies, while NSF and NIH remain
earmark-free (see Table A). R&D earmarks make
up nearly 10 percent of the energy R&D portfolio, and nearly 18 percent of
USDA’s extramural research portfolio. After being earmark-free for the first years
of its existence, DHS would get $82 million in R&D earmarks in 2008. The $939
million in nondefense R&D earmarks add up to more than the $786 million Congress
added to the President’s request for nondefense R&D. Although earmarks are
down in nondefense R&D agencies, DOD R&D earmarks reach new highs in 2008,
mostly because improved disclosure of earmarks this year has made previously hidden
earmarks more visible. In the Defense bill enacted in November, Congress earmarked
$3.5 billion in DOD R&D projects, most of which ($2.2 billion) would go to
“S&T” projects. The $2.2 billion in “S&T” earmarks would exceed the net
$2.1 billion Congress added to the Pentagon request for “S&T.” (For full details
see the AAAS R&D Funding Update on R&D Earmarks
in FY 2008 Appropriations, available on the AAAS R&D web site. There is
also a comprehensive database of R&D earmarks in
2008 bills.)]
Figure
4. (click on image for PDF)
R&D Appropriations for Key Agencies
[(Detailed
analyses of FY 2008 omnibus appropriations for individual agencies are now available
in AAAS R&D Funding Updates on the AAAS R&D Web site. The agency names
below are linked to that agency's funding update.)]
Figure 5. (click on image for PDF)
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget
would increase slightly in 2008, but nearly all NIH institutes would receive flat
funding. The total NIH budget of $29.5 billion in 2008, an increase of $275 million
or 0.9 percent over 2007, would be $604 million more than the requested cut but
nearly $800 million short of a larger appropriation President Bush vetoed in November.
Most of the meager increase would go to a larger transfer to the Global Fund for
HIV/AIDS and increased funding for the NIH Common Fund. Nearly all of the NIH
institutes and centers (IC’s) would see their budgets remain exactly the same
as last year, less than the 2.4 percent expected economy-wide inflation rate and
far less than expected biomedical research inflation of 3.7 percent. NIH R&D
spending, 97 percent of the total budget, would grow
just 0.9 percent to $28.7 billion (see Table 1 and
Figure 1). The final NIH appropriation requires NIH grantees to make their published
research papers freely accessible within a year of publication. The NIH Common
Fund, now contained in the Office of the Director budget, would gain $13 million
to $496 million. Because of flat budgets, the success rates for NIH grant competitions
is expected to remain below 20 percent, and the average grant size is expected
to keep falling further and further behind inflation. Since 2004, the NIH budget
has lost 6 percent of its purchasing power to economy-wide inflation (see Figure
5), or an 11 percent loss when measured against biomedical research inflation.
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A large increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF)
as part of the ACI made it through the President’s request, a House appropriation,
a Senate appropriation, and an authorization bill this year but faltered in the
late scramble to write the 2008 omnibus bill. Congress wound up giving NSF $6.0
billion for its total budget for a 2.0 percent increase, well short of the 8 to
10 percent increases in earlier bills and the request. NSF’s R&D investments
total $4.5 billion, up just 1.1 percent (see Figure 1 and Table 1), leaving NSF
R&D funding well below 2004 and 2007 levels in real terms (see Figure 5).
NSF’s research directorates receive increases well below inflation, and some could
see outright cuts. As a result, NSF efforts to increase success rates, grant numbers,
and average grant sizes will be reversed for most research areas in 2008. NSF’s
Education and Human Resources (E.H.R) budget, after years of steep budget cuts,
would gain 3.3 percent to $722 million, still a disappointment compared to the
approximately 20 percent increases in earlier appropriations and well short of
the funding levels envisioned for new programs in science and math education that
were authorized in the America COMPETES Act.
-
Although the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) requested a large increase for its R&D programs in 2008, the
increase would have gone entirely to human spacecraft, especially the project to develop the
Space Shuttle’s replacement. Although Congress tried to add funding to NASA’s
research-oriented programs in earlier appropriations bills, the omnibus comes
up short. The total NASA budget of $17.1 billion would be almost $200 million
short of the request but $850 million more than last year for a 5.2 percent increase.
Excluding the Space Shuttle and other non-R&D activities, NASA R&D would
gain $670 million or 5.7 percent for a total of $12.5 billion (see
Table 1 and Figure 1). Nearly all of the increase would go to development
and R&D facilities. The Constellation Systems development project to replace
the Space Shuttle and carry humans toward the moon would receive $3.0 billion,
a 6.2 percent increase; NASA plans to ramp up International Space Station construction
with $2.2 billion in 2008, up 26 percent. Hundreds of millions of dollars that
Congress had been counting on to shore up NASA’s research funding evaporated over
the last week, leaving NASA’s research programs flat (see Table
2). Although earlier appropriations would have boosted NASA’s Earth Science
portfolio by 10 percent or more, the final $1.5 billion would be a 4.4 percent
increase. Congress tried to use Earth Science funding to implement recommendations
of a recent National Research Council report expressing concerns that the number
of earth-observing sensors on NASA spacecraft could decrease by 40 percent this
decade if current NASA budget trends continue. Total Science funding in NASA would
reach $5.5 billion, a 1.8 percent increase that falls short of the request. Congress
shifted money from Science to shore up the shrinking Aeronautics portfolio (down
11 percent to $616 million instead of an even steeper requested cut) and to add
$83 million in congressional earmarks. In real terms, NASA R&D funding has
remained flat for the past decade (see Figure 5), but burgeoning development and
R&D facilities costs have squeezed NASA support of basic and applied research.
- The Department of Energy’s
R&D portfolio in FY 2008 would do relatively well with a $644 million or 7.4
percent to $9.4 billion (see Table 1), but the omnibus
bill brings several disappointments. [Although large requested increases between
15 to 18 percent in DOE’s Office of Science made it through the request, House
and Senate appropriations, and authorizations as part of federal efforts to boost
basic physical sciences research, most of the increases vanished in negotiations
over the omnibus bill.] DOE Science would get a total budget of $4.0 billion,
a 4.6 percent increase, a loss of nearly half a billion from earlier congressional
appropriations. The high-energy physics, nuclear physics, fusion sciences, and
basic energy sciences programs would get dramatically less than the request, with
wrenching dislocations in store for the programs and laboratories executing these
programs. For example, Congress zeroed out the $160 million proposed U.S.
contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project,
and provided only $15 million instead of the requested $60 million for the future
International Linear Collider (ILC) high-energy physics project. Only the advanced
computing and biological and environmental research portfolios did well in Science,
with increases of 24 percent and 13 percent, respectively, while congressional
earmarks make a comeback to the tune of $124 million after a one-year moratorium
in 2007. The trimmed Science dollars, which keep the Office at mostly flat funding
this decade (see Figure 5), make their way over to the Energy side of DOE: DOE
energy R&D would climb a dramatic 23 percent to $1.9 billion, the second year
in a row a requested cut turns into a large appropriated increase (see Table 1
and Figure 1). Congress boosts R&D investments in renewable energy technologies
such as hydrogen, solar, and biomass but also revives geothermal, hydropower,
and oil and gas technology R&D programs proposed for elimination, reverses
proposed cuts in energy conservation R&D and many fossil fuels R&D programs,
adds substantially to coal-related R&D in areas such as carbon sequestration,
and brings back energy earmarks after a one-year moratorium. In DOE’s defense
programs, Congress wound up eliminating requested funding for early development
work on a new nuclear warhead, the Reliable Replacement Warhead, within an overall
DOE defense R&D portfolio that would increase $107 million or 2.9 percent
to $3.8 billion (see Table 1), primarily for an enormous
43 percent increase in nonproliferation and verification R&D. The America
COMPETES Act created a new semi-independent Advanced Research Projects Agency
for Energy (ARPA-E) to fund breakthrough alternative energy R&D technologies,
but ARPA-E did not receive any appropriations in the omnibus bill.
-
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) R&D
portfolio would increase $86 million or 9.0 percent to $1.0 billion in 2008, after
a steep cut in 2007 (see Table 1 and Figure 1). Within the DHS portfolio, research
on radiological and nuclear countermeasures within the new Domestic Nuclear Detection
Office (DNDO) would continue to show growth, by 5.2 percent to $324 million. Congress
would mostly go along with the newly restructured S&T Directorate’s plan to
cut funding for most R&D areas, including cuts to chemical and biological
countermeasures R&D. But Congress would keep funding for University Programs
at $49 million instead of a requested cut to $39 million, and would add $82 million
in earmarks to the previously earmark-free DHS R&D portfolio.
-
Instead of a steep requested cut, Congress added hundreds of millions in R&D
earmarks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a slight increase in 2008 to $2.3 billion for USDA R&D (up
2.0 percent; see Table 1 and Figure 1). USDA extramural
agricultural research would remain flat at $654 million. The National Research
Initiative (NRI) of competitively awarded research grants would remain flat at
$191 million, far short of a $257 million request. [After a one-year moratorium
in 2007, congressionally designated projects (earmarks) would return to the tune
of $92 million for Special Research Grants earmarks and $25 million in other extramural
research earmarks, while Hatch Act funding would fall from an unexpected $323
million in 2007 down to $196 million.] USDA intramural agricultural research would
fall slightly to $1.1 billion despite the addition of numerous earmarks, and there
would also be $47 million in earmarks for agricultural research laboratories.
Forest Service R&D would gain 4.7 percent to $337 million. Congress is considering
structural changes in the USDA R&D portfolio as part of a new farm bill that
was due in October, but Congress ended 2007 without completing action on one.
- The Department
of Commerce’s R&D portfolio is a high priority for Congress, with
increases for both of Commerce’s main R&D units, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), despite the tight fiscal conditions of the omnibus bill. NIST R&D
would gain 4.7 percent to $514 million, but Congress would rearrange Administration
priorities. Although earlier appropriations bills had Congress agreeing to large
proposed increases in NIST intramural research as part of the ACI while still
saving the extramural Advanced Technology Program (ATP) from proposed elimination,
in the omnibus bill Congress flattened out intramural research with an appropriation
of $369 million (down 0.8 percent). The America COMPETES Act replaced the ATP
with a Technology Innovation Program (TIP); ATP awarded its last set of grants
and is gearing up to fund grants as the TIP. Congress helps TIP along with a first-year
appropriation of $46 million (after adjusting for a rescission), 40 percent off
the last ATP budget but an improvement over the zero request. The traditionally intramural NIST construction account
would nearly triple to $160 million, but would be split into the ACI intramural
construction program, a new $30 million extramural competitive program, and $51
million in extramural construction earmarks. Instead of a requested cut, Congress
would provide large increases for NOAA R&D to $573 million, a 7.6 percent
increase. Although most of the increase would go to earmarks, oceans-related research
and climate change research would gain strongly. Total Commerce R&D would
rise 6.5 percent to $1.1 billion (see Table 1).
-
R&D in the Department of the Interior’s lead science agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), would increase 3.4 percent or $19 million
to $583 million in contrast to a requested cut. The sharpest reversal would be in the mineral
resources R&D program, which Interior once again proposed to cut in half but
Congress would save. Congress added $7 million in new money specifically for climate
change research.
- R&D funding in the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) falls
by 3.2 percent or $18 million to $542 million in the omnibus (see Table 1 and
Figure 1). Congress deleted a $50 million climate change commission to prioritize
climate change adaptation and mitigation research that was proposed in the House
appropriation. Funding for most EPA research areas would decline.
- Department
of Transportation (DOT) R&D funding would rise 7.3 percent to $852
million in 2008, with cuts to aviation R&D balanced
by large increases for highway R&D.
-
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) federal
R&D would increase $41 million or 4.8 percent in the omnibus appropriation
to $891 million in 2008, helped along by Congress designating most veterans funding
as emergency and thus exempt from the stringent budgetary caps affecting other
domestic programs.
- In November, the
Department of Defense
(DOD) received $77.8 billion for its R&D programs
in FY 2008, a cut of 0.5 percent or $414 million (see Table
1). But Congress is likely to add as much as $3.9 billion in supplemental
development funds in early 2008 to make the final 2008 total an increase. Congress
added $2.1 billion to the request for DOD’s future-oriented investments, almost
entirely for earmarks, but would still leave funding down from 2007. DOD proposed
to slash “Science & Technology” (S&T) spending 22 percent, but after the
congressional adds the total S&T investment is $13.0 billion, down 7 percent
from last year. DOD support of basic research gains 3.2 percent in 2008 (see Table
2) to $1.6 billion, but Congress capped indirect costs on basic research grants
at 35 percent. The research-oriented Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) sees its budget fall 9.6 percent to $2.8 billion because of congressional
frustration over DARPA’s inability to spend past budgets.
Budget Outlook
The
110th Congress concluded the 2008 appropriations season in much the
same way as it concluded the 2007 season just 10 months ago: it agreed to fund
domestic appropriations at the President’s requested totals, and shifted money
out of requested increases for the ACI agencies to shore up funding for energy,
environment, and biomedical R&D. But unlike in FY 2007 when the new Democratic
Congress refrained from earmarking domestic programs, earmarks returned in the
2008 omnibus bill, although at reduced levels and with better disclosure than
previous Congresses. Although there had been hope for most of the year that the
new Congress could prevail in its desire to add $22 billion to the meager President’s
request for domestic appropriations, in the end President Bush held firm in his
threat to veto appropriations bills that exceeded his request and managed to convince
enough congressional Republicans to stick with him, in the name of fiscal discipline.
Ironically, the same week that Congress backed away from the additional domestic
funds lawmakers also agreed to the President’s demands for $70 billion in war
funding and a $50 billion one-year repeal of a scheduled Alternative Minimum Tax
increase, neither of which was offset at the President’s insistence. Therefore,
these costs will be added to the budget deficit for 2008. Waiting in the wings
for early 2008 is the remainder of the President’s request for nearly $200 billion
in 2008 war funding as an emergency supplemental.
The
late surrender to the President’s overall budget demands pulled the rug out from
the hopes of the U.S. science and engineering community, which all year had been
working toward securing large increases for the ACI agencies and had been hoping
for R&D increases in other agencies in the earlier appropriations bills. Hopes
were high when, after nearly two and a half years of consensus-building, Congress
cleared by large majorities and the President signed the America COMPETES Act
into law. But that was August, and by the late fall the President had vetoed the
largest domestic appropriations bill for exceeding his request by $10 billion,
Republicans had held together to sustain the veto, and the President issued veto
threats against most of the remaining House or Senate appropriations bills. Two
weeks before the omnibus bill appeared, congressional leaders signaled a
willingness to compromise by halving their domestic spending boost to $11
billion, but President Bush held firm so at the very last minute, before a weekend,
congressional leaders essentially agreed to the President’s requested totals.
Disappointment came quickly: after a frenzy of weekend work cutting out billions
from earlier versions of the appropriations bills, the omnibus bill suddenly appeared
early Monday morning and quickly went to the House, then the Senate, back to the
House again, and on to the President’s desk in less than 72 hours.
[Now
that President Bush has signed the omnibus into law, there will be a breather
of a month for everyone to absorb the impacts of the final 2008 budget before
the President releases his last budget proposal, for FY 2009, on the first Monday
in February.] All indications are that the disappointments may continue: although
the Administration remains committed to the American Competitiveness Initiative
(ACI), the 2009 request will no doubt be recalibrated to take final 2008 appropriations
into account, meaning the three ACI agencies could wander further away from a
10-year doubling track. The Bush Administration is likely to stand firm in its
pledge to continue reducing domestic discretionary spending, meaning once again
any increases in some priority areas such as the ACI or NASA could be more than
offset by steep cuts in other R&D programs. In an election year, there is
likely to be even more deadlock in Congress than there was this year, making the
task of merely enacting appropriations bills extremely difficult. And it remains
to be seen whether congressional Democrats will have any more success in boosting
domestic spending next year than they did this year.
(This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2008 congressional appropriations. The complete
series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses
of R&D in FY 2008 appropriations, is available on the AAAS R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2008 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.)
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December 20, 2007 (updated January 7 - updates in [ ] )
