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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Similar to the NSF budget, the President
recommended the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Office of Science receive an increase in FY2008
that continues toward the path described in the
American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). DOE’s
Office of Science would receive $4.398 billion
in the President’s budget.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The President’s FY2008 budget proposes a
significant increase for the USDA’s National
Research Initiative (NRI), recommending a
funding level of $257 million. This is
approximately $67 million over the FY2007
funding level in the House-passed joint funding
resolution. However, much of the increase is
targeted to “high priority” research areas,
including $19 million for bio-based fuels as
part of the President’s alternative energy
initiative.
At a briefing releasing the budget, USDA
Secretary Mike Johanns stated that the
Administration is emphasizing the importance of
competitive research grants through the NRI.
This was clearly to deflect criticism that the
FY2008 proposal also includes the loss of
several hundred million dollars of projects
funded through the Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) via congressional earmarks, a topic of
great interest to reporters present at the
briefing. In answer to questions about whether
the cuts will make the U.S. less competitive in
agricultural research or if the cut projects had
no value, Johanns stated simply that the
President was not going to fund earmarks,
supported competitive research, and wished to
bring greater transparency to the budget
process. The proposed amount for ARS in the
FY2008 budget is $1.056 billion. The USDA budget
request to Congress can be found
here.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
In FY2008, $411 million is requested for the VA
Medical Research Program. The President intended
to provide a $2 million increase based on his
assumption that the VA Medical Research
Program’s budget in FY2007 would be $409
million. However, the Joint Funding resolution
proposes to fund the VA Medical Research program
at $412 million in FY2007. Therefore, some may
view the President’s proposal as a cut.
For more information, read the
press release
from VA.
NASA
Once again, NASA has reorganized its programs in
the life sciences area. Research in the life
and biological sciences does not have a single
organizational component, and the total funding
for these fields is difficult to summarize.
Some of the programs under the old Human Systems
Research and Technology (HRS&T) Theme have been
moved into a new, smaller entity called the
Human Research Program (HRP). The NASA budget
documents show HRP declining from $414.6 million
in FY 2006 to $178.5 million in FY2007. The
President’s budget for FY2008 proposes $183.4
million for HRP. However, a footnote also
indicated that the budget for FY2008 “also
includes an institutional adjustment to the
allocation of agency costs to the program (+$7.8
million). Adjusting for the allocated costs, it
appears that there a decrease in purchasing
power of $2.9 million for FY2008.
FASEB PRESS RELEASE
FASEB issued a
press release stating that President
Bush has failed to live up to his promise of
nourishing NIH, especially in light of the
FY2007 Joint Funding Resolution, which provides
NIH with a $620 million increase.
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