(This legislative update is produced by the UH System Office of Governmental Relations and the UH Division of University Advancement as a service to the UH System community, our alumni, and our friends.)
PRESIDENT BUSH RELEASES FY 2004 BUDGET REQUEST --The Bush Administration released its FY 2004 budget request on February 3, covering government spending for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2003. Overall, the request includes a very tight cap on discretionary spending increases (4.1 % overall for FY 2004 as compared to 9 % in FY 2003).
There are some significant increases provided in the request. For example, Defense, Veterans, Homeland Security, and a major new school choice proposal would all receive large new infusions of funding. However, there are other programs that would see their funding decreased dramatically.
While the federal R&D programs do not seem to constitute a major priority for the Administration, neither are they seen as sources for cutting large amounts of funding. In the end, the nation’s research portfolio overall (this total includes defense and non-defense funding at the more than 20 federal agencies the Administration states conduct R&D) would gain 7 % under the Administration’s request. Overall basic research would rise by 5 %, overall applied research by 2 %, and overall development by 11 %.
When considering the budget request, it is important to note that, because Congress has not yet completed 11 of the 13 FY 2003 appropriations bills, the Administration is using the President’s FY 2003 proposal as its baseline for comparisons with the new FY 2004 request. For many agencies (NIH and NSF, for example), the final FY 2003 appropriations bills are likely to contain funding levels significantly higher than those originally proposed by the President for FY 2003. Others agencies, such as DOE, are likely to receive appropriations at levels similar to those originally requested.
The news is mixed for the agencies from which most academic researchers receive funding. The National Science Foundation would receive an increase of 9 % under the request, while the Department of Energy’s Office of Science would receive a below-inflation increase of only 1.4 %. The Department of Defense would see its basic research programs decrease by 7.7 % and its applied research programs decrease by 14.4 %, while the National Institutes of Health would receive only a 2 % increase, mostly in biodefense. NASA science appears to receive modest increases.