Six of the twelve bills that passed committee have now been voted on, and the report has been updated to reflect the approved amendments. Here’s a brief review of R&D estimates with functional highlights and international comparisons. Download the report.
Our current updated estimate[i] for aggregate fiscal year (FY) 2023 R&D in House appropriations is $192.5 billion, an increase of $15.6billion or 8.8% above FY 2022 estimated levels (Table 1). This is somewhat higher than the overall discretionary rise of 6.8% allowed under the House deeming resolution, which is a temporary topline that allows bills to progress while the final totals are still negotiated.
These numbers, however, are higher than the final House appropriations in FY 2022, continuing a trend to expand R&D budgets and be more competitive internationally. The Senate has yet to release its budget allocations, and if last year’s FY 2022 omnibus is any indication, the final numbers will likely be lower though this is still a strong start. One major difference between this appropriation cycle and the last is the character of work and distribution across R&D– FY 2022 focused on basic and applied research, while the House FY 2023 appropriations is giving priority to development funding.
The House figure is also nearly at parity with the White House FY 2023 request, with the House allocating just under a billion less. The R&D facilities spending levels are similar to FY 22 levels with no major changes in distribution.
[i] AAAS estimates are based on OMB, agency, and appropriations data and language. We’ll update these based on amendments or additional data reporting from the agencies.