DC Digest - Special Budget Edition - May 11, 2009
ADMINISTRATION RELEASES FY10 BUDGET DETAILS
On February 26 President Obama presented an outline of his proposed FY10 budget. On May 7, the Administration provided more detailed information on specific agency and program funding. Below is a brief summary of the specific FY10 funding proposals for individual agencies.
Additional details are available in the agency budget materials that the Association of American Universities (AAU) has posted on its website.
Scroll down for more info on:
National Institutes of Health
National Science Foundation
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
NASA
Department of Education
National Endowment for the Humanities
National Institutes of Health:
The FY10 budget requests $30.996 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of $443 million, or 1.45 percent, above the FY09 comparable level. (These figures do not include the $10.4 billion the agency received in ARRA funds.)
As previously indicated, the budget plan would increase spending on cancer research across NIH by $6 billion. This $268-millon dollar increase is intended as the down payment on a doubling of cancer research funding at NIH over eight years.
National Science Foundation:
The Administration proposes to provide the National Science Foundation (NSF) with $7.04 billion in FY10, an increase of about $550 million, or 8.5 percent, above FY09 funding. (The total does not include the $3 billion NSF received in ARRA funds.)
The FY10 request for Research and Related Activities is $5.85 billion, an increase of $670 million or 12.9 percent, above the FY09 enacted level. The request for Education and Human Resources is $973 million, an increase of $128 million, or 15.1 percent, above the FY09 enacted level. The request for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction is $117 million, a reduction of $35 million, or 23 percent, from the FY09 enacted level.
Department of Defense:
The Department of Defense (DOD) proposes to spend $11.65 billion on Defense S&T in FY10, an increase of $174.2 million, or 1.5 percent, above the previous Administration’s FY09 request. Defense Science & Technology (S&T) consists of budget categories 6.1 basic research, 6.2 applied research, and 6.3 advanced technology development. (With these figures, DOD continues its annual practice of eliminating nearly all congressionally designated S&T add-ons and earmarks contained in the previous year’s funding bill. Thus, the most useful comparison is with the previous year’s request, rather than the FY09 enacted level.)
Within the S&T total, 6.1 basic research would be funded at $1.8 billion, an increase of nearly $100 million, or 5.9 percent. In contrast, funding for 6.2 applied research would remain constant at about $4.2 billion; and funding for 6.3 advanced technology would rise by about $73 million, or 1.3 percent, to $5.61 billion.
Department of Energy:
As a key agency in the Administration’s plans to develop alternative forms of energy, increase efficiency, and address global climate change, the Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing a number of new science and technology initiatives, not all of which are in its Office of Science.
The DOE Office of Science would receive $4.9 billion, an increase of $184 million, or nearly four percent, above the FY09 enacted level. (This funding does not reflect the $1.6 billion the Office received in ARRA funds.)
The agency proposes funding increases for most program areas within the Office, including for Workforce Development, through which DOE will initiate a new graduate fellowship program authorized by the America COMPETES Act of 2007. The agency also requests $100 million for second-year funding for the 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers that were just announced. The budget proposes no funding for additional EFRC awards.
For the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), DOE is requesting just $10 million, targeted to program direction. The agency, which is still getting organized and has just issued its first program announcement, received $400 million in ARRA funds, as well as $15 million in FY09 appropriations.
New in FY10 is a major initiative to establish eight multidisciplinary Energy Innovation Hubs, focused on addressing basic science, economic, and energy policy challenges. These centers, to be modeled after the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers, will be awarded competitively in areas already specified by DOE, and funded at about $25 million a year for five years, with the opportunity for renewal.
The agency also proposes a new clean energy education initiative to be funded at $115 million, with $80 million for higher education programs. This will include support for fellowships, internships, postdoctoral opportunities, and development of interdisciplinary masters programs in areas of clean energy.
NASA:
The space agency budget would rise to $18.6 billion in FY10, an increase of $904 million, or 5.1 percent, above the FY09 enacted level. Much of the increase would be devoted to the Exploration Mission Directorate, which would receive a 13-percent increase, to $3.9 billion.
By contrast, the FY10 budget would slightly reduce funding for the Science Mission Directorate—down by $26 million to $4.4 billion—and provide a modest increase of $7 million for the Aeronautics Mission Directorate, which would receive $507 million.
These totals do not reflect the $1 billion NASA received in ARRA funds, which include an additional $400 million for NASA Science and $150 million for Aeronautics, to be spent over FY09 and FY10.
Department of Education:
The President’s budget proposes $46.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education in FY10, an increase of $1.3 billion over comparable FY09 funding. As promised, the budget includes the proposal to transform the Pell Grant program into a full entitlement and increase the maximum grant each year by the consumer price index plus one percentage point.
In part to fund the Pell Grant change, the Administration would move all student loan activity to the Direct Loan Program, essentially eliminating the bank-based guaranteed loan program. The budget for the Perkins Loan program would be expanded from $1 billion to $6 billion, with an expanded group of participating institutions and a loan formula—to be developed in consultation with Congress—that “encourage[s] colleges to control costs and offer need-based aid to prevent excessive indebtedness. It may also reward schools that enroll and graduate students from low- and middle-income families.”
Most other higher education programs would be level-funded in the FY10 budget, including supplemental grants, federal work-study, the three graduate education programs, and international education programs.
National Endowment for the Humanities:
The Administration proposes a budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in FY10 of $171.3 million, an increase of $16.3 million, or more than 10 percent. However, $10 million of the proposed increase would come from the transfer of oversight of the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts to NEH.
Within the total NEH budget, funding for the core research, education, preservation and access, and public programs would increase to $61.8 million, an increase of $2.3 million, or four percent. Support for the Federal/State Partnership Program would grow to $38.5 million, an increase of $3.5 million, or 10 percent.