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Government agencies are preparing for another tough budget year.
Mitch Ambrose April 12, 2024
US Department of Energy.
Lawmakers’ lofty rhetoric about increasing science spending was met with the harsh reality of budget caps this year, with Congress cutting most science agencies in the final budget for fiscal year 2024. The numbers were set through two bills, the first of which was signed into law in March. The second time was on March 9th, and the second time was on March 23rd.
One of the hardest hit government agencies is the National Science Foundation, whose budget has fallen by 8% to $9.06 billion. The cuts reverse much of the 12 percent increase Congress provided to NSF last year through special supplemental appropriations.
Congress framed that $1 billion in additional money as a down payment under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The act proposes rapid expansion of the NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the DOE Office of Science. But the amendment was ultimately a maneuver to circumvent budget limits negotiated that year, and Congress had no intention of making the same move this year.
NIST also had one of the largest reductions among science agencies, dropping 8% to $1.16 billion. This would unwind about half of the $1.26 billion, 18% increase in base funding that Congress provided NIST last fiscal year. (These numbers do not include assignments for projects outside of NIST.)
The DOE Office of Science was one of the few science agencies to escape budget cuts, receiving a 1.7% increase to $8.24 billion, on top of an 8% increase from the previous year. Nevertheless, this year’s amount is unlikely to keep up with inflation, forcing the agency to make difficult choices about which programs to prioritize.
Together, these three agencies are currently more than $8 billion short of the goals set by CHIPS and the Science Act for fiscal year 2024.
Although disappointing to science advocates, this result is not surprising. Congress routinely fails to meet the budget goals it sets for itself. The current move reflects the story of American competition law, where ambitions to grow the same three government agencies disappeared after a 2011 standoff over raising the national debt ceiling led to a decade of budget caps. .
The outcome stems from a similar fight over raising the debt ceiling last spring. The Republican-controlled House ultimately agreed to raise the cap in exchange for a new cap on discretionary spending. The compromise, achieved through the Fiscal Responsibility Act and oral side agreements, would keep total non-defense spending roughly flat in fiscal year 2024 and allow for only a 1% increase in fiscal year 2025.
Defense-focused research is not exempt from the demanding task. For example, Congress cut the Pentagon’s basic research budget by 10% to $2.63 billion in fiscal year 2024, close to the amount it received four years ago. One exception to this trend is that Congress increased DOE’s Nuclear Weapons Control Research, Technology, and Evaluation Program portfolio by 11% to $3.28 billion.
Science institutions are now preparing for another tough budget year, with the expectation that spending caps will remain in place for fiscal year 2025.
Some science advocates are hopeful that Congress could increase science funding through special legislation. For example, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has expressed interest in developing a follow-on bill for CHIPS and the Science Act, which theoretically would have given $52 billion to science in the original law. This could include direct spending on selected technology areas, as well as inputs. Semiconductor department.
But overall appetite in Congress for further special measures has slowed. In addition to the CHIPS Act, Congress has passed a number of other major spending initiatives in recent years, including the Pandemic Recovery Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Control Act, and wartime aid to Ukraine.
Mitch Ambrose is the Director of FYI. FYI is a trusted source of science policy news published by the American Physical Society since 1989.
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