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R&D in the FY 2002 Budget Request


The federal FY 2002 budget proposal was unveiled by President Bush on April 9, 2001, and the overall treatment of research and development funding is the worst the science community has seen in a long time. The Administration's plans to cut taxes, increase Medicare spending, and pay down the national debt left little new money for discretionary spending. And what new funds were available went mostly to education. Moreover, within the overall R&D budget, medical and defense research are slated for significant increases. As a result, other federal R&D agencies would see their budgets cut under the proposal.

The Congress has reacted strongly to the Administration's plans to reduce science budgets with a variety of letters, reports, and other actions. During its consideration of the budget resolution, the Senate adopted an amendment to increase the general science and space category by $1.44 billion above the Administration's baseline. (This category covers the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Energy's Office of Science; the category breakdown in the budget resolution differs from the more familiar breakdown used in appropriations process.) The budget resolution is non-binding, a preliminary step on the road to generating the annual appropriations bills. So it's worth noting that the amendment to provide this significant funding boost was sponsored by key appropriations committee members from both political parties.


Overall Research & Development

The total R&D request is a record $95.3 billion, $5.2 billion or 5.8 percent more than the estimated FY 2001 total. But the proposed increases for Department of Defense R&D, $3.6 billion, and the National Institutes of Health, $2.7 billion, would more than offset the overall increase. In fact, if you take NIH out of the equation, the budgets for non-defense research and basic research would both suffer decreases.

The budget targets only two major multiagency initiatives for increases in FY 2002: funding for the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Initiative would grow by about 8 percent to $482 million; and the Networking and Information Technology R&D initiative budget would grow by about 2 percent to $2 billion, a far cry from the 30 percent the IT R&D initiative enjoyed in FY 2001.

Federal R&D Funding
Actual
FY 2000
Estimate
FY 2001
Proposed
FY 2002
% change
FY 01-02
 
Total R&D 83,138 90,010 95,253 5.8%
 
R&D Funding by Type
Basic Research 19,421 22,018 23,352 6.1%
Applied Research 18,466 20,734 21,553 4.0%
Development 40,524 42,594 45,954 7.9%
Facilities & Equipment 4,727 4,664 4,394 -5.8%
 
R&D Funding by Sector
Defense R&D 42,906 44,946 48,579 8.1%
Non-defense R&D 40,232 45,064 46,674 3.6%

 (amounts in millions, current dollars)

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation's FY 2002 budget request totals $4.47 billion, a proposed increase of $56.1 million or 1.3 percent over FY 2001. As the Education and Human Resources directorates would see an even larger increase, the agency's support for research would decline slightly to compensate. NSF Director Rita Colwell barely tried to put a good spin on the numbers, noting that most other R&D agencies didn't even do that well.

Over the past month, Congress has reacted strongly to the low budget numbers. As a result, the Administration has begun a review of the needs and opportunities of the NSF to determine whether significant increases are warranted in the future and how to ensure that funds are managed well. The review is expected to be completed in time for incorporation into the FY 2003 budget proposal.

National Science Foundation Budget
Actual
FY 2000
Estimate
FY 2001
Proposed
FY 2002
% change
FY 01-02
Funding by Major Category
Research & Related Activities 2,979.90 ,3,342.63 3,326.98 -0.5%
Education & Human Resources 708.64 785.62 872.41 11.0%
Major Research Equipment 105.00 121.33 96.30 -20.6%
Administrative Expenses 154.88 166.81 176.80 6.0%
Total, NSF 3,948.43 4,416.39 4,472.49 1.3%
 
Funding for Initiatives
Biocomplexity in the Environment -- 54.88 58.10 5.9%
Information Technology Research -- 259.43 272.53 5.0%
Nanoscale Science and Engineering -- 149.68 173.71 16.1%
Learning for the 21 Century -- 121.46 125.51 3.3%

 (amounts in millions, current dollars)
NSF Research. The NSF's total support for research would shrink by about a half a percent in FY 2002. Nearly every program within the research directorates would suffer cuts. Notable exceptions include two programs within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate that would see double-digit increases: materials research facilities and mathematical sciences, which is the subject of a new NSF initiative in FY 2002.

NSF Research Directorate Budgets
Actual
FY 2000
Estimate
FY 2001
Proposed
FY 2002
% change
FY 01-02
Biological Sciences 418.3 485.4 483.1 -0.5%
Computer & Information S&E 388.6 477.9 470.4 -1.6%
Engineering 379.8 430.8 431.0 0.0%
Geosciences 487.6 562.2 558.5 -0.6%
Math & Physical Sciences 755.9 850.8 863.6 1.5%
Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences 162.1 164.4 163.2 -0.8
Integrative Activities 129.3 97.75 80.6 -17.5%

(amounts in millions, current dollars)
Computer and Information Science and Engineering. The total CISE budget request is $470 million, a decrease of about $7 million, or -1.6 percent, below estimated FY 2001 spending. All major activities of the CISE Directorate would suffer at least slight decreases in their budgets for FY 2002, except for the Information Technology Research category, which would be held flat. FY 2002 plans for the ITR initiative include research enabling the next generation of Cyber Infrastructure to build on successes in high-performance computing and communications. The NSF budget documentation says this line of research "will make possible the full integration of high-volume data resources, high capacity storage, and new techniques enabling users to use and understand information… (and) will create technologies for advances in computational science, education, universal access to cultural resources, and other uses." Focus areas include human augmentation research, research at the interface of biology and information technology, and security and reliability for computer, communication and information systems.

NSF Computer & Information Science & Engineering Budgets
Actual
FY 2000
Estimate
FY 2001
Proposed
FY 2002
% change
FY 01-02
Computer-Communications Research 60.24 65.49 64.39 -1.7%
Information & Intelligent Systems 41.43 48.84 48.02 -1.7%
Experimental & Integrative Activities 57.84 60.95 57.81 -5.2%
Advanced Computational Infrastructure & Research 78.01 81.60 80.22 -1.7%
Advanced Networking Infrastructure & Research 60.66 65.55 64.44 -1.7%
Information Technology Research 90.39 155.48 155.48 0.0%
Total, CISE 388.57 477.90 470.36 -1.6%

(amounts in millions, current dollars)

Further analysis and charts for other science agencies will be added to this document as they become available.

prepared by Lisa Thompson, CRA Director of Government Affairs


Return to the FY 2002 Federal Budget page


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Document last modified on Wednesday, 04-Apr-2012 06:51:17 PDT.