HOMELAND SECURITY. Largely unknown still is just what the new Department of Homeland Security will be using for R&D facilities and management. But it does have a budget proposal for 2004.

The President has proposed $1 billion for R&D, which is a 32% increase in spending above what the agencies being incorporated into the new department would receive this year. Most research, about $800 million, will be done through the Science & Technology Directorate, which will assess the department's long-term needs, develop a strategic plan, and identify R&D goals and priorities. The department will fund research in the private sector, at universities, and at other government laboratories for development and production of advanced technology systems needed for homeland security.

EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency's R&D budget weathered a proposed 15% cut for 2003, a drop largely due to a one-time homeland security supplement in 2002 of $90 million for research related to the World Trade Center attack and anthrax incidents. EPA's fiscal 2004 request would bring the agency's research spending up to $731 million from the $670 million sought for 2003.

J. Paul Gilman, EPA assistant administrator for R&D and science adviser to agency chief Christine Todd Whitman, says the 2004 budget proposal would substantially increase efforts to update and expand a database important to chemical makers and regulators around the world. The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is a Web-based collection of data summaries on the potential health effects of more than 500 chemicals.

Gilman says the 2004 budget request would nearly quadruple funding for EPA's efforts on IRIS, up to $7 million from $1.8 million in 2003. On Feb. 5, the agency issued a list of more than 80 substances that it intends to update or add to IRIS in 2003 and 2004. These chemicals include acetaldehyde, ammonium perchlorate and other perchlorate salts, three isomers of dichlorobenzene, formaldehyde, methyl tert-butyl ether, perchloroethylene, styrene, and TCDD.

In addition, EPA is seeking $9 million for computational toxicology in 2004, up from the $3.2 million requested for 2003. This work involves use of microarrays to determine how exposure to a chemical affects gene function as well as computational techniques to extrapolate the results from a tested chemical to compounds with similar structure.

The 2004 budget proposal would restore the only federal program exclusively funding graduate students in environment-related studies--the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) fellowship--at $5 million for 2004, although the program got $10 million in 2002. Gilman says funds for STAR fellowships will come from funds now used for grants to individual investigators.

The Administration had cut the program from its 2003 request, but Congress reinserted it in legislative deliberations. The Senate bill to fund EPA for 2003 would provide about $5 million for STAR fellowships, and the House version of that measure includes $10 million for this program, according to Gilman. A Senate-House conference has yet to work out the final number.

The agency's R&D budget for air-pollution-related work includes an increase of $1.5 million over 2003. Nearly all of this is slated for new research related to President Bush's proposed Clear Skies Initiative to cut air pollution from electricity-generating plants, Gilman says. This research would focus on the environmental transport and fate of mercury, one of the three pollutants targeted in the Clear Skies Initiative, he adds.

Also, the 2004 R&D budget proposal for EPA includes $2.3 million in funding for the newly created Office of the Science Adviser. Headed by Gilman, this office will work on science issues that cut across all agency programs. These include peer review, improving computer models for projecting how pollutants move through the environment, and the new federal guidelines on information quality, Gilman says.

COMMERCE. "This is a wartime budget," Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology Phillip J. Bond said when presenting the technology portion of Commerce's 2004 budget. He explained that the budget "recognizes money is limited but research and innovation are vital to America's world leadership."

The primary scientific agencies within Commerce are the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). For the second year in a row, NIST is expected to take a hit, with a 12% drop in its budget from 2003 for a total of $496 million.

The biggest casualty for NIST is the termination of the Advanced Technology Program, which provides cost-shared funding to industry for high-risk R&D. The budget includes just $27 million to cover administrative expenses for ending the program.

Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program at NIST will remain flat at $12.6 million. MEP is an effort to improve technology used in smaller businesses. The Administration proposed a cut in funds for 2003 in accordance with a planned phaseout of MEP, and the fiscal 2004 request will be used to support two centers.

The case is only slightly better for the laboratories at NIST. Although the overall funding request is down nearly 1% from 2003, to $381 million, all but one major area of activity will see an increase in funding. One new initiative is funding related to homeland security. A request of $10.3 million will go to support measurements and infrastructure in nuclear, radiological, biowarfare, and other terrorism-related areas; learning from the World Trade Center collapse; and biometric identification systems.

The 2004 budget for NOAA is $3.3 billion, up nearly 6% from 2003. The funding contains an $81.7 million increase to continue to develop and operate NOAA's National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System and its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program. An additional $3.5 million is requested to enhance the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's supercomputing capability.

Also seeking funding are the Marine Transportation System projects ($6.5 million) and ocean-observing systems ($6.3 million). And, to aid in homeland security, the 2004 budget calls for a $5.5 million increase in funds to support a scaled upgrade of the current NOAA weather radio operations to an all-hazards warning network, which would receive and disseminate chemical and biological messages.

 

NIST Advanced Technology Program takes major cut $ MILLIONS 2002a 2003b 2004b CHANGE 2003–04 Laboratory programs by major activity $324.7 $383.8 $380.7 –0.8% Materials science & engineering 58.5 65.2 66.3 1.7 Computer science & applied math 55.5 54.3 57.2 5.4 Physics 34.0 38.0 54.0 42.0 Research support activities 41.7 85.6 52.9 –38.2 Electronics & electrical engineering 41.3 42.7 44.1 3.3 Chemical science & technology 35.7 40.0 42.3 5.7 Building & fire research 20.0 18.6 23.2 24.8 Manufacturing engineering 20.4 21.1 21.8 3.3 Technology assistance 17.7 18.3 18.9 3.3 Construction of research facilities 63.6 54.2 69.6 28.4 Advanced Technology Program 184.5 107.0 27.0 –74.8 Manufacturing Extension Partnership 106.5 12.6 12.6 0.0 Baldrige National Quality Program 5.2 5.5 5.8 5.5 TOTAL $684.5 $563.1 $495.7 –12.0% a Actual. b Proposed. SOURCE: Department of Commerce

AGRICULTURE. Continuing a trend begun last year, the Department of Agriculture's research budget would fall 2% from $2.34 billion proposed for 2003 to $2.31 billion in 2004.

Most of the decline stems from a cut in funds for the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA's principal in-house research agency in natural and biological sciences. The ARS budget would fall $32 million, or 3%, from the 2003 proposal to $1.03 billion for 2004. However, the decrease results from the elimination of a homeland security supplement of $73 million included in the 2003 budget proposal. That research will now be done at the Department of Homeland Security. The research and information component of the 2004 ARS budget actually increases by $29 million over the proposed 2003 budget.

ARS's 2003 budget zeroed out all projects earmarked by Congress in fiscal years 2001 and 2002--projects with total funding of $89 million. The 2004 budget repeats that exercise. For the most part, the 2004 budget extends proposals made for 2003.

The research areas that will be given high priority at ARS include research to provide technical assistance and education to farmers in conserving soil, water, and air resources; pest and disease management in plants through use of biologically based technologies; plant genome mapping; disease prevention in animals; food quality and safety; development of new food and industrial uses for agricultural commodities; elimination of barriers to the export of agricultural commodities; and development of production systems that are sustainable and environmentally benign. An increase of $8.3 million is provided for emerging diseases and biosecurity.

Forest and rangeland research conducted by USDA's Forest Service would get a $9 million increase over the amount proposed for 2003, to $243 million. The budget includes increases of $2.5 million for research on sudden oak death, a fungus disease; $2 million for bio-based products; $4.1 million for research on invasive species; and $3 million for fire research.

NASA. According to OMB's figures, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's total R&D budget would rise to $11.0 billion, an increase of 9% over the $10.1 billion proposed for 2003.

However, two factors make it impossible to give a realistic estimate of how much NASA's budget actually will increase. First, Congress has not yet passed NASA's budget for 2003 and may make large changes in the budget. Second, Congress may also make major adjustments in the 2004 budget as a result of the Feb. 1 space shuttle Columbia tragedy. After the Challenger accident 17 years ago, Congress increased NASA's budget considerably.

Moreover, several factors make it impossible to compare 2004 budget figures for specific programs with the R&D numbers for 2003. This year, NASA totally restructured its budget to reflect its strategic plan, adding two new accounts--Science, Aeronautics & Exploration and Space Flight Capabilities--which partially overlap with programs existing in 2003. Also, it revamped its budget to reflect the full cost of each project, including the cost of personnel and facilities. At press time, NASA had not yet produced a breakdown of its budget figures that would allow meaningful comparisons between program levels proposed for 2003 and those for 2004. As might be expected, NASA's budget briefing scheduled for Feb. 3 was canceled; a new briefing date has not been set.

NASA's budget for 2004 adheres to several strict criteria. Every project must be relevant to one or more goals stated in the agency's strategic plan. Human space flight will be expanded only as a means of exploration, research, and discovery. Technology developments must have broad applications. Education and inspiration must be an integral part of all programs. And NASA must pursue activities unique to its mission.

In fiscal 2004, NASA will begin several new R&D programs. These include climate-change research targeted at high-priority policy issues; new aeronautics technologies to enable safer, quieter, and more efficient air travel; communications technologies using laser light instead of radio waves to transmit information; nuclear propulsion systems to be demonstrated on a trip to Jupiter's moons; research into the human factors of space travel that will enable safe human exploration beyond Earth; and education programs to expand the number of students pursuing science and engineering careers.

THE BUDGET PROCESS. The President's budget for fiscal 2004 now goes to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, where it will be divided into 13 appropriations bills. Hearings will be held on each by various subcommittees, and legislation will emerge that sets the levels of spending for all federal departments and agencies. The numbers approved by Congress may be very different from those originally proposed by the Administration, but historically R&D has not been radically changed. The whole process is supposed to be completed and the bills signed by the President by Sept. 30, the last day of fiscal 2003.

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