Discussion and debate over the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget were marked by fiscal conservatism, even before the debt limit negotiations between the White House and Congress began, dictating the appropriations season. The President’s Budget Request included only moderate increases to most programs – some even staying at FY 2023 levels. The final debt-ceiling compromise (Fiscal Responsibility Act,) that was ultimately signed into law, kept discretionary totals at slightly below FY 2023 levels, which many hoped would preclude cuts to many programs. That did not, however, prevent members of the House Appropriations Committee from using their authority to set their own discretionary spending levels, and depending on which area of science you are a part of, they held true to their promise of not allocating drastic cuts to some science programs.
The following tables provide an estimate of the R&D funding in the House budget that has passed the Appropriations Committee. These estimates are calculated based on the Office of Management and Budget’s accounting of the basic and applied research, development, and construction work done for the purpose of research supported by federal agencies. The estimates exclude salaries of non-research personnel and other operating and administrative costs within the agency budgets. This is why the numbers will look different from those we report in the dashboard – the R&D estimates are the amount of funding that is going purely to R&D.
