Administration officials Thursday criticized the congressional GOP's budget resolution for decreasing funding for federal research and development. The Republican move could make it difficult for the White House to obtain additional money for its new information technology initiative.
While the budget resolution only provides the outlines of congressional budget priorities for fiscal 2000 and is not binding, administration officials point to funding under the broad science and technology category as an ominous sign.
"The Republican budget resolution, which provides only for an increase in NIH [National Institutes of Health], stands in stark contrast" to the President's commitment to science and technology, said Neal Lane, assistant to the president for science and technology, during a hearing on the administration's FY2000 R&D budget before the Senate Commerce Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee.
"It is essential that we also see increases in NSF [National Science Foundation] and science and technology programs in all the agencies."
The budget resolution, which was passed by the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday, provides for $18 billion for science, space and technology programs for FY2000, $800 million less than FY1999 spending. The resolution offers $1.2 billion less than the administration requested for that category.
Additional R&D funding is spread across other categories in the budget resolution, but a White House official said the science and technology category offers a good signal of Republican R&D priorities.
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Bill Frist, R-TN, echoed Lane's concern about R&D funding in the GOP's budget resolution. He has introduced legislation, S. 296, to nearly double federal R&D funding by 2010.
One of the President's top R&D priorities is a 28 percent increase in FY2000 for information technology R&D. The president has requested $366 million to build on programs such as high-performance computing and the Next Generation Internet. NSF would receive the biggest chunk of that money.
Lane said lawmakers he has spoken with have been supportive of the idea. But whether that translates into additional funding remains to be seen.
In an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily, Rep. James Walsh, R-NY, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the NSF, appeared skeptical of the initiative. He said it appeared to be a "[Vice President] Gore-driven" effort to repackage existing programs.
"Right now it will have to compete with everything else," Walsh said.
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