House Legislation Calls for Doubling NSF Budget

In the months since President Bush released his fiscal year 2003 budget calling for a 5% increase in the National Science Foundation budget while simultaneously proposing a 17% increase for the National Institutes of Health, many budget watchers in both Congress and the scientific community have been grumbling. The call for a “more balanced portfolio” between life sciences and basic research has become almost a mantra on Capitol Hill. NSF Director Rita Colwell has repeatedly found herself facing skeptical congressional questioners who note that, because of program money being transferred to NSF from other agencies, her budget request is closer to 3%, or about the rate of inflation.

In response to the increasing pressure to “fix” the NSF budget, several members of the House Science Committee, including Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), introduced a bill in early May that would double the NSF budget within five years, beginning with a 15% increase in FY 2003. The bill, actually introduced by Representative Nick Smith (R-Mich.), chairman of the research subcommittee, was cosponsored by 16 representatives from both parties and is expected to give serious political momentum to reconfiguring the science budget to increase basic science funding.

At a crowded press conference in the committee’s large hearing room on 7 May, Smith said that although he has “a philosophy of limited government,” he wants to double the NSF budget because “continuing our support of basic research forms the building blocks for the applied research that keeps our security, health, and economy strong.” Boehlert, who has been a strong supporter of increasing basic research funding throughout the federal government, said that “the thinking behind this bill is simple, but not simple-minded.” NSF supports research that is of critical importance to the future of the nation’s economy, security, health, and educational excellence, he said. “Those are all pretty solid arguments for rewarding NSF with more than praise,” he continued. “Recognition is nice, but success requires real money. This bill will help NSF get the real money it needs.”

The bill proposes to bump NSF’s FY 2003 budget from the $5.03 billion requested by the administration to slightly more than $5.51 billion. The $5.51 billion would be a 15% increase over NSF’s current budget of $4.79 billion. There would be another 15% increase in the FY 2004 budget, followed by yet another in FY 2005. The final goal, the committee members said, is to double the NSF budget by 2007.

In FY 2003, the bill would

The bill also would require the National Science Board and Colwell to submit to Congress each year a priority list for proposed projects, along with explanations of how the rankings were determined. Congress has been trying unsuccessfully for several years to get such a list from NSF. David Stonner, head of NSF’s Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, said the foundation was “thrilled with the confidence Congress has placed in us,” but noted that adding more money to the NSF budget would mean taking it away from another agency to keep it within the limits of the administration’s budget proposal.

Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.), a physicist-turned-legislator, said the bill has a good chance of passing the House, but getting it through the entire legislative process and getting the money appropriated remains “a big question.”