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R&D FUNDING
Senators and representatives are hurrying to finish details of the fiscal 2003 federal budget this week even as President George W. Bush proposes his plans for fiscal 2004. Congress is not expected to approve the 2003 budget until the end of this month. Funding for science and technology programs in the omnibus appropriations bill (H.J. Res. 2) is better than many expected, but final outcomes depend on what the conferees do. The Senate had given research some good funding increases, but effectively removed them by trying to reconcile last-minute spending increases with a proposed 2.9% across-the-board spending cut that would take away most R&D gains. Most increases in R&D passed by the Senate would go to the Defense Department and to the National Institutes of Health. Military basic and applied research would get a $1.4 billion increase, to $11.7 billion, and NIH would complete its five-year doubling and receive $25.6 billion--an 11.3% rise. Funding approved by the House is about the same. Other agencies would get far less. The Department of Agriculture would see a 5% cut in R&D to $2.2 billion, and the Department of Energy's total R&D package would get a 1.5% rise to $8.5 billion. For the National Science Foundation, the House approved a 14% increase, while the Senate approved only 7%, leaving the budget somewhere between $4 billion and $3.8 billion. The across-the-board cut proposal is an effort by the Senate to meet Bush's limits on discretionary spending. House members are reluctant to make such cuts, indicating that any overall reductions may be less. The President's fiscal 2004 budget was scheduled to be released on Feb. 3, with a proposed 4% rise in discretionary spending, but the prospects of extremely high budget deficits next year have lawmakers balking at this increase.
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