Comment▼ EPA’s research budget
© 2007 American Chemical Society
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STAR grant Ecosystems
100 Millions of dollars
T
hey say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought I would let the accompanying graph do most of my talking. Simply put, the U.S. EPA’s research budget for ecosystems and extramural Science To Achieve Results (STAR) grant funding is on a dangerous course. In the figure to the right, fiscal years 2007 and 2008 (FYs ’07 and ’08) represent President Bush’s budget requests. Because the FY ’07 budget is appropriated through a continuing resolution, the funding may actually stay the same as it was in FY ’06. Nonetheless, the trends are startling. The president’s FY ’07 total budget for EPA is $7.3 billion; each year since 2005, it has declined ~4%. EPA’s budget for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) in FY ’07 (president’s budget) is $557 million, about a 6% decline from the previous year’s enactment. EPA is the primary agency responsible for protecting the health of the environment, yet ecosystems research now represents
