Government
Federal R&D funding: modest gains in 1979 Final funding levels in most cases were several per cent higher than fiscal 1978; some energy R&D projects took considerable cuts Congress didn't manage to get fiscal 1979 funding approved for all the federal agencies, by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. During the final week of the session, which ended Oct. 15, appropriations bills were flying back and forth between the House and Senate chambers. By dint of hard work and some legislative sleight of hand, all were approved before the 95th Congress called it quits. There is still a possibility that Presi-
dent Carter may veto some of the appropriations bills as budget busting. But that is unlikely. With Congress adjourned, such a veto would mean no paychecks for millions of federal workers and no money to run the government. Still unsigned at press time were bills providing funding for the Departments of Defense; Energy; Health, Education & Welfare; and Labor. About the best that can be said for federal R&D funding for fiscal 1979 is that it did all right. The modest gains that were slated for R&D in the Administration's budget request last January became even more modest after Congress had worked its will. But even though Congress cut research budget requests (the National Institutes of Health, as always, was an exception), the final funding levels were for the most part several per cent above fiscal 1978 levels.
The defense appropriations bill is a good example both of the work that went into getting the money bills through Congress and of what happened to R&D money. Passed in early October, the defense bill contained more than 3500 line items. There were 91 amendments to the bill made by the House and Senate and 342 line items that were in dispute, with the House having set one funding level and the Senate another. It took conferees 30 hours in four days to resolve these differences. The bills won final approval on Oct. 12. As reported from the conference, the bill—H.R. 13635—contained more than $12 billion for Department of Defense R&D, testing, and evaluation activities. This figure represents a 7% increase over the fiscal 1978 funding level. But it is about 3% less than the Administration requested. Two slightly incongruous notes
Congress cut most research funding requests but budgets still ahead of last year 1979
1979 Request
$ Millions
DOD Navy Air Force Army Defense agencies NASA R&D Facilities Program management DOE Conservation Breeder reactor Fossil energy Solar General science and research Light water reactors Fusion Environment R&D Energy production, demonstration Basic energy sciences Geothermal Energy storage Space nuclear systems Electric energy systems Biomass Hydroelectric Advanced technology assessment NIH Cancer Heart, lung & blood
16
C&ENOct. 23, 1978
Final
$11,322.3 $12,440.4 $12,123.7 4,490.5 3,991.8 4,463.9 4,158.3 4,339.1 4,131.0 2,417.9 2,721.4 2,635.9 754.3 889.4 892.9 $4,063.7 $4,371.6 $4,350.2 3,013.0 3,305.1 3,292.2 160.9 152.5 147.5 889.8 914.0 910.5 $3,647.3 $4,071.6 $3,885.5 594.0 927.7 707.1 512.6 480.9 608.0 632.0 637.5 576.9 308.1 357.7 374.5 298.6 302.8 306.6 299.0 203.9 190.0 186.8
236.2 221.0 181.0 254.7
258.7 227.0 186.3 169.2
149.7 103.7 48.5 45.9 36.7 20.3 10.0 7.5
169.5 124.3 48.0 42.1 36.6 21.0 22.0 8.6
163.9 132.6 48.0 38.4 36.6 23.7 23.0 5.0
$2,517.7 851.8 424.9
$2,564.4 858.4 432.2
$2,877.1 917.0 485.6
$ Millions
Arthritis, metabolism & digestive diseases General medical sciences Neurological & communicative disorders & stroke Allergy & infectious diseases Research resources Child health & human development Eye Environmental health sciences Dental research Aging John E. Fogarty Center NSF Research Science education Overseas activities Commerce NOAA Science & technical research USDA Agricultural 'Research Service Cooperative State Research Service Forest research EPA TOTAL
1978
Request
Pinal
243.3
249.4
287.9
196.3 170.9
185.1 173.6
231.1 205.0
154.9
159.8
183.2
144.5 91.1
148.5 108.9
153.6 114.3
80.7 58.6
82.4 63.9
100.5 73.5
57.4 34.8 8.5 $863.2 785.1 73.2 4.9 $705.3 628.3 77.0
57.8 35.9 8.5 $934.0 850.4 77.6 6.0 $756.7 661.2 95.5
61.9 54.5 9.0 $911.0 827.0 80.0 4.0 $748.4 660.7 87.7
$595.1 346.1
$591.5 331.1
$662.5 379.9
143.2
158.2
174.4
105.8 $319.5
102.2 $324.1
108.2 $328.5
$24,034.1 $26,054.3
$25,886.7
in the bill were the provision of $1.8 million to the Army for nutrition research and $5.3 million to the Navy for research on energy and environmental protection. Research funding for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration also was increased over the fiscal 1978 level, up 9.3% to about $3.3 billion. NASA's overall budget request was barely hit by the cost-cutting fever Congress experienced in the wake of Proposition 13. It was reduced by $21 million or 0.5%. This included a late $4.5 million cut made on the Senate floor that could not be applied to certain programs whose funding had been specifically increased by Congress. Some of NASA's funding increases provided by Congress over the budget request include $4 million for a fifth shuttle orbiter, $2 million for the development of a 25-kw power module to support longer-duration shuttle flights, and $2 million for a solar satellite power-generating system. These increases were more than offset by Congressional deductions from the budget request of $5 million for expendable launch vehicles, $4.7 million for lunar sample analysis, and $2 million to search for extraterrestrial life, among others. The up-to-now sacrosanct energy R&D budget was in for some Congressional surprises this year. Usually Congress ends up adding millions of dollars for pet projects to the Administration's budget request. Some projects did get increases this year. But overall, Congress cut the energy R&D budget request by about 5% to $3.9 billion, and funding for some research areas was cut below fiscal 1978 levels. Examples include fossil energy R&D, down 9.2%; space nuclear systems, down 19%; and energy production, demonstration, and distribution programs, down 10%. Programs that garnered increases both over fiscal 1978 levels and the budget request include breeder reactors, up 26% over the request; light water reactor technology, up 9.5%; biomass, up 13%; and solar, up 5%. For a while it looked as if most Department of Energy R&D programs would have to survive at their fiscal 1978 funding levels. Money for these programs was contained in the public works appropriations bill vetoed by Carter in a fight over water projects. However, at the last minute, Congress approved a continuing funding resolution allowing energy R&D programs to be funded at the previously approved levels for fiscal 1979. Funding for the National Institutes of Health had clear sailing, as usual, in Congress. In contrast to the rest of the R&D agencies, NIH had no trouble in picking up funding increases for each of its member institutes. Administration plans to increase funding for the National Cancer Institute by less than 1% over fiscal 1978 levels were scuttled by Congress in favor of a 7.6% increase. Big winners among the institutes in terms of increase over fiscal 1978 levels are: Aging, up 57%; Environmental Health Sciences; Eye; and
Child Health & Human Development, all up about 25%; and Neurological & Communicative Disorders & Stroke, up 20%. The National Science Foundation had been slated by the Administration for an 8% increase, both in its overall budget and in its research budget. However, Congress settled for a 5% increase in both cases. Of NSF's $827 million research budget, Congress directed that not more than $55.5 million be spent for its Applied Science & Research Applications program of which not more than $1 million is to be spent for problem analysis, not more than $5 million for earthquake hazard mitigation, and not more than $2.4 million for community water-management research. In raising the agency's budget request for science education by $2.4 million, Congress directed that the money be spent on a priority basis for the undergraduate research participation program (which the Administration wanted to kill), student-originated studies, and instructional scientific equipment. In one of its more generous moves, Congress rejected the Administration's proposal to hold agricultural research funding essentially constant, and instead increased such funding some 11%. In doing so, Congress ordered retained a number of agricultural laboratories that the Administration had wanted to close down. Part of the money saved by cutting back on in-house research at USDA was intended by the Administration to be used to double funding for the competitive grants program started last year. However, the House refused entirely to go along with this plan, retaining in-house and contract research and doing away with the competitive grants program. The Senate voted to keep the competitive grants program, as well as in-house research, though at a lower level than the House wanted. The outcome of the dispute was that almost all of the in-house research was retained, and the competitive grants program also was kept; but its funding would be held to $15 million, the same level as in fiscal 1978, with $10 million to go for basic plant research and $5 million for human nutrition research. Another $31.2 million was set aside for contract and grants research. The research budget also earmarked $1 million for integrated pest management, $1.4 million for energy conservation and climate stress studies, $1.5 million for nutrition research, and $500,000 for alcohol fuels. In other actions, Congress increased funding for the Environmental Protection Agency's R&D programs about 3% over fiscal 1978 to $328.5 million. The Food & Drug Administration's budget was set at $295.2 million, with $300,000 earmarked for dietary and other nutrition studies and $250,000 for research on antibiotics in animal feeds. And the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's budget was set at $171.2 million, including $9.8 million for health and safety standards development. Janice R. Long, C&EN Washington
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Oct. 23, 1978 C&EN
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