Obama seeks agreement with lawmakers to lift automatic
spending cuts and tax increases set for new year.By
David KramerReaching agreement with Congress to avoid the
fiscal cliff—across-the-board tax increases and spending
cuts—is critical to prevent cuts to investments in basic
research and education, President Obama told reporters this
week. Touting his plan to raise taxes on Americans who make
more than $250 000, Obama said at a 14 November
press conference that the automatic budget cuts and tax
increases that are due to take effect on 2 January can be
avoided in a way "that does not hurt middle-class families;
that does not hurt our seniors; doesn't hurt families with
disabled kids; allows us to continue to invest in those things
that make us grow like basic research and education, [and]
helping young people afford going to college."The American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) estimates
that federal R&D budgets would decline $12.1 billion
in fiscal year 2013 if the spending cuts mandated by last
year's Budget Control Act take effect. By agency, the
Department of Defense would lose $6.9 billion in R&D;
National Institutes of Health, $2.4 billion; Department of
Energy, $972 million; NSF, $456 million; NASA,
$763 million; and Department of Agriculture,
$189 million, according to
the
analysis.Matthew Hourihan, director of the R&D budget
and policy program for AAAS, said as many as 19 states could
lose $1 billion or more in federal R&D funding over the
next five years if the mandatory cuts, also known as
sequestration, proceed. Such reductions would bring the total
R&D spending of the major federal funding agencies down to
a level last seen in 2002 (measured in constant 2012 dollars).
Through FY 2017, annual mandatory R&D cuts would total
$57.5 billion.Subra Suresh, NSF director, told a House hearing
on 15 November that the sequestration would lower NSF's
$7 billion current year funding by 8.2%, which would
result in 1000 fewer new grants and could impact thousands of
scientists. The cutbacks would also discourage young people
from pursuing science studies, he added.Steven Fluharty, vice
provost for research at the University of Pennsylvania, warned
that sequestration would cost $50 million to $60 million in
lost research grants for the university next year, and it would
result in the layoff of at least 1000 employees and postdocs at
the institution. "Some research programs will be halted on the
cusp on some breakthrough; that is undeniable," Fluharty told a
14 November AAAS Capitol Hill briefing.Orlando Auciello,
distinguished fellow at Argonne National Laboratory, said some
DOE laboratories have already reduced their laboratory-directed
R&D (LDRD) budgets by 5% to 10% in anticipation of the
sequestration. The LDRD programs, he noted, are the source of
support for a disproportionate number of the national labs'
postdocs.Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) called the fiscal
cliff "an artificial crisis." Lawmakers, he told the AAAS
briefing, should be focusing on "doing things instead of
talking about what we can't do." The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act has shown that investments in R&D do
produce jobs in the short term. "Money spent on R&D, even
borrowed money, pays back big," Holt declared.
