Major Science Funding Called for in House Stimulus Plan
I’ve just finished a meeting of the NRC CSTB, held at Google in Mountain View. I shouldn’t say too much about what went on, but it’s worth noting that I detected a sense of hope in the air. The new Administration seems to be taking science and technology research very seriously, as a key element in addressing the challenges facing the nation. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt remarked to us yesterday, “Isn’t it great to have a President who actually cares about science?”
Of course, the major focus for the government right now is the proposed Stimulus and Recovery Plan, which is to provide an economic boost of more than $700B and generate millions of jobs within the next two years. Well, yesterday the House Appropriations Committee released their version of the stimulus plan. An analysis of the bill text can be found on Peter Harsha’s blog. (Peter is CRA’s director of government affairs.)
If the House plan is adopted, the potential impact on basic research would be significant. The plan specifies a $3B increase for NSF (yes, that’s 3 billion), an increase of almost 50% over its current budget. $1B of this would go for facilities upgrades and research instrumentation grants, thus leaving $2B for core research programs. This would provide about 3,000 additional research grants and engage almost 13,000 researchers and students. Interestingly, the bill text states explicitly that it intends to restore NSF funding to pre-2000 (i.e., pre-Bush Administration) levels. In addition to the NSF funding, there is also substantial stimulus funding for DOE Office of Science, NIST, and the NIH.
There is a significant question about what happens after the stimulus, which is very clearly a one-time “jolt”. In subsequent years, would the NSF budget go back to a ~$6B base budget? Or would its future budgets start at something closer to $8B, as a way to “catch up” to two years of missed budget increases mandated by the America COMPETES Act? At this point, it’s impossible to say. And as Peter Harsha explains, the new government still has a lot of hard work to do. Still, as a first serious cut at the stimulus package, this is a a truly great start.
No matter what happens, the attitude that the new government is showing towards science research is incredibly refreshing.
Peter Lee @ January 17, 2009
It looks like Obama’s call to action has been heard. The jobs report has finally pushed Washington to move. Although nobody is completely satisfied with the package I think that our representatives realize that something is better than nothing in this case. I am particularly happy to see that the scientific research still remains a priority of this package. Hopefully in the final iterations of this stimulus the promises made to bolster science and research remain intact.
[…] 2009 stimulus plan working its way through the fed presently. $125 billion in education spending, a $3 billion increase in NSF funding, $100 billion for energy infrastructure, and $10 billion for basic science research are just what […]