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Science Budgets Get A Lift
The House and Senate have finally passed the appropriations bill, H.R. 2620, that funds science at NSF, EPA, and NASA for fiscal 2002. All three agencies will receive more funds than requested by the Bush Administration, and the President is expected to sign the bill very soon.
The bill raises NSF funding 8.2% above fiscal 2001 to $4.8 billion, the agency's highest level ever. It provides $922 million for mathematical and physical sciences research, $509 million for biological sciences research, and $468 million for engineering research. It also raises education funding at NSF by 10% to $875 million for the current fiscal year.
NSF Director Rita R. Colwell said the increase was extremely welcome. "I'm delighted with Congress' action," she told C&EN. "It's not NIH's increase, but we'll take it." The NIH budget has been rising about 15% per year for the past several years.
For EPA, Congress has appropriated $7.9 billion, a rise of just under 1% but much better than the 6% cut proposed by Bush. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said the funding is enough to allow EPA to move forward on its initiatives. She also specifically noted the conference committee's approval of the agency's decision to set a drinking water contaminant level for arsenic of 10 ppb.
NASA will see its funding rise by $508 million over last year, to $14.8 billion. House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.) called the increased science funding a sign of Congress' support for R&D investment. "This is a clear signal that this Congress understands the importance of federal R&D," Boehlert said.
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