Engineers examine President's 2000 fiscal R&D budget

ASME's Inter-Council Committee on federal R&D (ICC) met in Washington in late April to review President George W. Bush's fiscal year 2002 budget request, focusing on the research and development requests for science and engineering.

As part of that program, ICC members were briefed by several executive branch and Capitol Hill staff on the overall outlook for action on the fiscal year 2002 budget request. The ICC is chaired by ASME member Michael M. Reischman.

The information gleaned from those meetings will form the basis for position statements on the various R&D budgets to be submitted in conjunction with the ongoing fiscal 2002 budget and appropriations processes. As each position statement is finalized, it will be posted at www.asme.org/gric/ps01.html.

The first of the speakers, Steve Isakowitz, branch chief of science and space programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), noted that federal funding for basic R&D would increase by 6.1 percent under the president's plan, compared with a 4 percent increase across all discretionary programs.

Noting that in recent years growth in private sector R&D has far outstripped federal investment, Isakowitz said the Bush administration is supporting a permanent tax credit to spur continued growth in private sector research.

In contrast, Kei Koizumi, director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science R&D Budget and Policy Program, cautioned that the president's budget request is based on an assumption of continued economic expansion.

While total federal R&D funding would be $95 billion in fiscal 2002 under the president's plan, non-defense R&D is flat or declining when National Institutes of Health R&D funding is excluded. Koizumi noted that engineering R&D could shrink in fiscal 2002 because of smaller R&D budgets at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

David Goldston, chief of staff of the House Science Committee, agreed that the proposed R&D funding levels for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and DOE "are lousy" and not necessarily supported by the chairman or the committee. Goldston said that the long-term outlook for R&D is good and that, while the short-term outlook is uncertain, the funding levels adopted by Congress will likely be above the president's request.

In a related development, the House Science Committee held a hearing on the proposed R&D budget for fiscal 2002 on April 25. Rita Colwell, NSF director, and NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin were among those testifying. House Science Committee members expressed bipartisan concern for the very small proposed increases in the NSF and NASA fiscal 2002 R&D budgets as compared to the 14 percent increase proposed for the National Institutes of Health.

For a copy of the hearing charter and statements from the various witnesses, refer to www.house.gov/science/fchearings.htm.

Those respective discussions and subsequent budget analyses of the fiscal 2002 budget request will provide the basis for the Mechanical Engineering chapter of the AAAS Report XXVI, "Research & Development FY 2002."

For more on the ICC, contact Reese Meisinger at (202)785-3756 or at meisingerr@asme.org.

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