Released in February, President Obama’s final budget proposal favors the Department of Energy and NIST for R&D allocations while sharply cutting those for NASA and basic and applied research at the Department of Defense. It asks for a slight increase for NSF.
To supplement DOE’s, NASA’s, and NSF’s science and technology budgets with a combined $1.9 billion, the Obama administration seeks to establish new mandatory spending. Unlike discretionary funding, mandatory spending is not controlled every year by congressional appropriators. Rather, laws governing mandatory programs stipulate a source of funding to pay for them, such as proceeds from the sale of portions of the RF spectrum or newly imposed fees.
According to an analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the administration has identified offsets for only $800 million of its total $4.2 billion mandatory R&D proposal.
Congress rejected a previous administration proposal for mandatory R&D spending in...
