by Gary Jones
FLC Washington, DC Representative
Greetings from DC. As I write this, Congress has just left for its August recess. They will return the first week of September, then most will leave again the first week of October for a final month of campaigning. The implication is that there are scant few days remaining for work on this year's legislative agenda which, of course, includes the federal budget (and its R&D component).
While Congress is on break, I thought I would briefly highlight where the R&D budget appropriation efforts stand, then point to the work already underway at outlining R&D budget priorities for FY 2008. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Congress made significant headway in the appropriations bills before the recess, but "left so much unfinished that nearly all the major R&D funding agencies will have to wait until well after the October 1 start of FY 2007 to receive their final budgets." Specifically, while the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have each drafted all 11 appropriations bills covering
the R&D budget, the full House has passed 10 of 11 and the full Senate has passed only 1 of 11. This means a great deal of work is left in the Senate alone, even before going to House-Senate conference on each bill.
The current R&D funding amounts in each set of appropriations bills are greater than the President's budget request (up to $138.3 billion in the Senate and $139.4 billion in the House); however, these numbers are almost certain to be revised during the reconciliation process.
By and large, both houses of Congress have strongly supported the President's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI, see the March DC on T2 column) by proposing substantial increases in funding for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology core functions, and the Department of Energy's Office of Sciences.
In addition, they have supported the requested boost in spacecraft and weapons technology (where the bulk of the increase in investment would go), as well as the flat or declining budgets for the National Institutes of Health and Homeland Security R&D funding.
For an in-depth analysis of the current state of appropriations for each agency and its respective programs, see the AAAS R&D update at www.aaas.org/spp/rd/upd806.htm.
While the FY 2007 R&D budget remains an ongoing effort, the annual budget cycle rolls along. On June 23, Director Marburger, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Director Portman, Office of Management and Budget, sent a six-page memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies outlining the Administration's FY 2008 R&D budget priorities.
As the memo states, it " … highlights the President's American Competitiveness Initiative, provides guidance for setting priorities among R&D programs, identifies interagency R&D efforts that should receive special focus in agency budget requests, and reiterates the R&D Investment Criteria that agencies should use to improve investment decisions for and management of their R&D programs."
The document reaffirms the President's commitment to the ACI (supporting basic research in the physical sciences and engineering), specifically by staying on track to double the investment at NSF, NIST, and DOE's Office of Science over the next ten years.
A seven-percent annual increase at each agency is required to meet this "doubling" objective. In addition, similar "high impact basic and applied research" at the Department of Defense should also be a priority.
Guidance for setting priorities in agency R&D efforts is based on a number of underlying conditions, not the least of which is the ever-present concern over "finite resources" and the commitment to the ACI. Agencies are expected to employ a rigorous evaluation process for existing and proposed new programs. Specifically, any new programs must demonstrate their "merit, quality, importance and consistency with national priorities."
Moreover, any requests for new programs should "identify potential offsets by elimination or reductions in less effective programs …"
The memorandum further identifies ten "types" of R&D programs favored by the Administration.
These include programs that: 1) advance fundamental scientific discovery to improve quality of life, 2) support highleverage basic research, 3) align with efforts of the Academic Competitiveness Council and the National Match Panel to enable performance in science, math and engineering education, 4) enable potentially high payoff activities that require a federal presence (i.e., national security, energy security, air transportation), 5) sustain specifically authorized
agency missions, 6) reduce the burden of illness and increase productivity, 7) ensure a scientifically literate population, 8) strengthen our ability to understand global environmental issues, 9) maximize efficiency of the S&T enterprise by expanding use of merit-based, peer-review
processes and phasing out marginally productive programs, and 10) encourage interdisciplinary research and expand international partnerships.
Six areas are identified that will require strong interagency coordination. These include homeland security, energy security, advanced networking and high-end computing, national nanotechnology initiative, understanding complex biological systems, and the environment.
Finally, the memo directs all agencies to utilize R&D investment criteria to improve their investment decisions and program management efforts. Relevance, quality and performance comprise the three primary criteria agencies should apply in their management and decisionmaking.
Specific activities required to meet these investment criteria are spelled out in an earlier document, linked in the current memorandum. Many have already been incorporated into the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), which should be used as an "instrument to periodically
evaluate fulfillment of the criteria at the program level."
The President's memorandum can be found at www.ostp.gov/html/budget/2008/m06-17.pdf.
Gary can be reached at gkjones@federallabs.org.
