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CIRCLE 26 ON READER SERVICE CARD March 21, 1988 C&EN
Government
Science programs listed for possible budget cuts As it is required to do each year by law, the Congressional Budget Office has just released its economic and budget outlook for fiscal year 1989 and beyond. Included this year as a separate volume is a list of federal programs that could potentially be cut to meet deficit-reduction targets. CBO estimates a budget deficit of about $176 billion for fiscal 1989, with very slow declines after that. These estimates run considerably higher than targets set by the recent balanced budget legislation agreed to by Congress and the President. CBO's list of possible cuts is not intended to suggest policy, but it does provide a means for Congress to see how such cuts would affect the budget over several years. The potential cuts (and increases in taxes and fees) touch on all parts of federal spending, including de fense, and a number of the sugges tions would reduce funds for science and technology programs. Of these, one of the largest savings over time would be a freeze on research, de velopment, test, and evaluation spending at the Defense Department at the fiscal 1989 level of $38.2 bil lion. CBO indicates that over the next five years savings would come to $3.6 billion over predicted Ad ministration requests. The budget office also takes a look at Strategic Defense Initiative funding, but says there are not enough data to project expected savings from a program as volatile as SDL The largest single idea for budget savings in the CBO report is cancel lation of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's interna tional space station program. This has been a pet project of the current Administration and was given a $1 billion boost in the President's proposed 1989 budget. Advocates of the program, CBO says, contend that manned exploration of the solar sys tem requires this type of long-term, cooperative commitment. Another benefit from design and construc tion of a space station is the possi bility of technological spinoffs. Those wishing to cancel the pro gram contend it would serve no particularly useful purpose and that many of its scientific goals could be
met by more modest projects. The space station indeed has become a political football. Just last week, before a hearing on the NASA bud get, Rep. Edward P. Boland (D.Mass.) told the House Appropria tions Committee that unless more money is devoted to housing pro grams next year, he would work to kill the space station. The budget office notes that over the next five years, if the program were cut entirely, savings would total $13.2 billion based on projected Administration requests. If this were done, some projects could be carried out by using shuttle spacelab flights and intermittently tended and un manned facilities rather than a per manently manned station. Another NASA reduction could be made by postponing major new spacecraft development projects in the agency's space science program. CBO says that about $620 million could be saved over the next five years. Other agencies do not have these kinds of programs to reduce. One of the larger programs mentioned by CBO is the planned Supercon ducting Super Collider. Canceling it outright this year would save only about $135 million already approved by Congress, CBO says, but the Ad ministration plans to provide nearly $2.5 billion in the next five years. Even the Congressionally secure National Institutes of Health might be considered for reduction, CBO says. A reduction of 5% would lead to a projected savings of $1.6 bil lion between 1989 and 1993. CBO says the money could come from reducing the size or number of grants or by limiting the amount of overhead NIH is willing to support. Other suggestions in the science area for reducing the deficit include eliminating subsidies for health pro fessions education, which might save $1.2 billion over five years. More than $1.7 billion might be saved through fiscal 1993 by reduc ing funding levels for agricultural research and extension activities 25%. In addition, more than $10 bil lion could be saved by eliminating the federal grants to states for waste water treatment plant construction. David Hanson, Washington
