President's fiscal year 2003 budget proposal unveiled

As part of his $2.1 trillion fiscal year 2003 budget proposal, President Bush is seeking an 8 percent increase in the nation's research and development budget. Most of the additional funds will go toward programs at the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

Of the $111.1 billion in proposed R&D funding, $54.5 billion would go to the Department of Defense — an 11 percent increase over current levels. Information on the proposed budgets of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation follows. Budget proposals for other agencies will be detailed next month.

Department of Defense
The administration is requesting a record increase for the defense budget, but the
allotment for Science and Technology — the portion closely watched by ASME — would be $9.7 billion in fiscal 2003, a decrease of about $300 million from current levels. That amount covers $1.4 billion for basic research, $3.8 billion for applied research and $4.5 billion for Advanced Technology Development.

Department of Energy
Overall, the budget for the Department of Energy would increase 5 percent under the president's proposed budget, for a total of $21.9 billion. Within that amount, however, there are some clear winners and losers.

Renewable energy R&D would receive an overall 6 percent increase next year, for a total of $407.7 million. Winners of the largest increases include hydrogen, with an additional $10.7 million for $39.9 million total; wind, with $5.4 million more for a $44 million total; high-temperature superconductivity, increased by $15.5 million for $53.5 million total; and hydropower, with a $2.5 million increase to total $7.5 million.

Within the fossil energy budget, carbon sequestration research would increase $21.8 million, for a total of $54 million, and the Vision 21 program, excluding hybrids, would increase $3.6 million, for a total of $31.6 million.

The new FreedomCAR fuel cell vehicle program would receive $150 million. The president's Coal Research Initiative, which is a consolidation of the Clean Coal Power Initiative and the coal research and development program, would be reduced $12.7 million, to $325.5 million. The Clean Coal Power Initiative would receive the same funding of $150 million.

Nuclear energy research would increase 35 percent, rising $18.5 million to $71.5 million, mainly because the administration intends to expand the use of nuclear power in the United States. Toward that end, the budget creates a new Nuclear Power 2010 program to focus on resolving the technical, institutional and regulatory barriers to the deployment of new nuclear power plants by 2010.

The NP2010 program would receive $38.5 million in fiscal 2003, and the Generation IV power plant research program funding would be doubled from $4 million to $8 million.

To pay for the increases, the administration would eliminate the Nuclear Plant Optimization Program, a $6.5 million savings, and would reduce funding for the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (by $7 million, for a $25 million total) and for spent fuel pyroprocessing and transmutation (by $59 million for an $18.2 million total).

Finally, the nuclear waste disposal program would get a huge increase of $149.8 million for a $527 million total because of the recent certification of the suitability of the Yucca Mountain, Nev., site for long-term nuclear waste storage.

National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is requesting $5.036 billion for fiscal 2003,
5 percent, or $240 million, more than the previous fiscal year.

The fiscal 2003 budget request for engineering is $487.98 million, an increase of $15.66 million, or 3.3 percent, over the fiscal 2002 level of $472.32 million. The Engineering Activity will support research in areas including biotechnology, information technology, microelectronics and nanotechnology.

The budget includes a second installment of $200 million for the president's five-year Math and Science Partnership program to link local schools with colleges and universities to improve pre-K-12 math and science education, train teachers, and create innovative ways to reach out to underserved students and schools.

— Melissa Murray
ASME Government Relations

back to columns