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R&D in the
President's FY 2004 Budget
by
Greg Hill
Engineering
R&D Symposium
More than 100 engineers and scientists representing the nation’s science, engineering and technology endeavor ascended upon Capitol Hill on 3-4 March to discuss the federal government’s research and development (R&D) priorities. Set against the backdrop of the President’s
FY 2004 budget proposal, the first annual Engineering R&D Symposium
— co-sponsored by IEEE-USA — highlighted a recurring theme: 2004 would be yet another year of relatively flat federal funding for non-defense R&D in the physical sciences and engineering.
More than 20 speakers from industry, academia, government and professional societies briefed attendees on the first day of the two-day event, which was followed by a day of visits with Members of Congress as well as officials at a number of the key R&D agencies.
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After four years of operating with budget surpluses, the federal government expects to run a record deficit for the current year and the next. Squeeze in the President’s package of $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade,
considerable increases in defense spending, a possible war in Iraq,
escalating costs for entitlement programs like
Medicare and social security, and you’re left with a fairly anemic pie for the rest of the federal
agencies to scramble for.
The President’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2004 includes
$122.5 billion for research and development (R&D), a 4.4 percent increase over
FY 2003 levels (Congress finally completed action on FY 2003 appropriations on 20 February
— four months into the current fiscal
year).
On the surface, the R&D total is higher than it has ever been before. But a closer inspection of the R&D breakdown reveals a rather lopsided, defense-heavy picture of the R&D budget, with most
of the increases going toward weapons systems development and to research at the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The total research (basic and applied) budget would only increase by
1.5 percent to $53.7 billion. And the federal science and technology (FS&T) budget
— covering R&D and non-R&D programs
that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) characterizes as emphasizing basic and applied research and
creating new knowledge or technologies
— would inch up 0.1 percent to $58.9 billion.
Where's The
Beef?
Accounting for 55 percent of the federal R&D portfolio are the defense related R&D activities at the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy
(DOE) and the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
totaling $67.5 billion.
Despite the overall increase for defense, DOD's
"Science and Technology" (S&T)
— research, medical research
and technology development
— would actually fall 8.3 percent to
$10.3 billion.
As they have for most of the past decade, the non-life sciences and engineering continue to fare the
worst in the budget outlook, with a mixed bag of relatively flat or decreased
funding, and a number of proposed program cuts. Non-defense
R&D would grow a modest 1.2 percent to $55 billion, with the
majority of the growth attributable to the increases at perennial
R&D favorite, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Discounting the NIH increases, however, non-defense R&D would
actually decline by 0.1 percent from the FY 2003 appropriated
level to $28.0 billion.
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Who
gets the biggest piece of the pie?
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Here’s a quick look at how the
proposed FY 2004 R&D dollars would be shared among the major R&D
agencies and some of their key programs:
|
Agency
|
FY
2004 R&D $$ (Proposed) |
|
%
Change from
FY 2003
|
|
Defense (DOD)
|
$62.8 billion |
 |
(+ 7.1%) |
|
- Basic research (“6.1”)
|
$1.3
billion |
|
(-7.7%) |
|
- Applied research (“6.2”)
|
$3.7
billion |
|
(-14.4%) |
|
-
S&T
|
$10.3
billion |
|
(-8.3%) |
|
- Missile defense development
|
$8.3
billion |
|
(+22%) |
|
-
DARPA
|
$3
billion |
|
(+9.8%) |
|
-
Joint Strike Fighter
|
$4.4
billion |
|
(+28%) |
| |
|
|
|
|
Nat'l Institutes of Health
(NIH)
|
$26.9 billion |
|
(+ 2.7%) |
|
- Nat'l Nanotechnology Initiative |
$70
million |
|
(+7.7%) |
|
|
|
|
NASA
|
$11 billion |
|
(+ 0.2%) |
|
- Space Science R&D
|
$4.0 billion |
|
(+ 12.7%) |
|
- International Space Station
|
$1.7 billion |
|
(- 6%) |
| |
|
|
|
|
Energy
(DOE)
|
$8.5 billion |
|
(+
4%) |
| - DOE defense R&D |
$4.2
billion |
|
(+
8.6%) |
| - Office of Science (OS) |
$3.3
billion |
— |
(flat) |
| |
|
|
|
|
Nat'l Science Foundation
(NSF)
|
$4.0 billion |
|
(+ 2.8%) |
|
-
Directorate of Math and Phys Sciences |
$1.1
billion |
|
(+
2.6%) |
|
- Networking and IT R&D |
$724
million |
|
(+
6.8%) |
|
-
Nat'l Nanotechnology Initiative |
$247
million |
|
(+
11.8%) |
| |
|
|
|
|
Agriculture
(USDA)
|
$1.9 billion |
|
(-
10.3%) |
| |
|
|
|
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Commerce (DOC)
|
$1.1 billion |
|
(-
17.2%) |
|
- Nat' Insitute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
$410
million |
|
(-
22.1%) |
|
- Nat'l Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |
$675
million |
|
(-
1.4%) |
|
- NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) |
$0.0 |
|
(-
100%) |
| |
|
|
|
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Homeland Security (DHS)
|
$1 billion |
|
(+ 49.6%) |
|
- New
S&T Directorate
|
$801
million |
|
(n/a) |
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Further
Analysis In the Works
IEEE-USA is
currently developing a more detailed analysis of electrical and
electronics engineering and computer science/IT in the
President's budget request, which will be available later this
month. For continually updated information and more detailed analysis on the President's FY
2004 budget request, see the American Association for the
Advancement of Science's (AAAS) R&D Budget Policy Project
at: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/
Greg
Hill is IEEE-USA's member & electronic communications
specialist.
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