| Federal Research and Development Funding: Fy2015 Contributor(s): Congressional Research Service (Author) |
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ISBN: 1502841681 ISBN-13: 9781502841681 Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform OUR PRICE: $18.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science |
| Physical Information: 0.15" H x 8.5" W x 11.02" (0.43 lbs) 74 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: President Obama's budget request for FY2015 includes $135.352 billion for research and development (R&D), a $1.670 billion (1.2%) increase from the FY2014 level of $133.682 billion. The request represents the President's R&D priorities; Congress may opt to agree with part or all of the request, or it may express different priorities through the appropriations process. In particular, Congress will play a central role in determining the growth rate and allocation of the federal R&D investment in a period of intense pressure on discretionary spending. Low or negative growth in the overall R&D investment may require movement of resources across disciplines, programs, or agencies to address priorities. Funding for R&D is concentrated in a few departments and agencies. Under President Obama's FY2015 budget request, seven federal agencies would receive 95.4% of total federal R&D funding, with the Department of Defense (DOD, 47.6%) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, 23.0%) accounting for more than two-thirds of all federal R&D funding. In addition to the FY2015 base budget request, the President has proposed an Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative (OGSI) that seeks, together with funding for other purposes, $5.3 billion for R&D at certain agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, $2.515 billion), National Institutes of Health ($970 million), NASA ($874 million), National Science Foundation (NSF, $552 million), Department of Agriculture ($277 million), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ($180 million). Of the NIST funding, $2.4 billion would support the establishment of a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The R&D budgets of NIST, NSF, and the DOE Office of Science were targeted for doubling over 7 years, from their FY2006 levels, by the America COMPETES Act, and over 11 years by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Although the President's FY2015 budget requests increases for these accounts, it departs, as did the FY2014 request, from earlier Obama and Bush Administration budgets that explicitly stated the doubling goal. The President's FY2015 request continues support for three multi-agency R&D initiatives, proposing $1.537 billion for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), $3.786 billion for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program, and $2.501 billion for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The request also proposes approximately $200 million in FY2015 for a Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative, as well as funding for the Materials Genome Initiative and the National Robotics Initiative. On September 19, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 (P.L. 113-164). The act provides continuing FY2015 appropriations to federal agencies for continuing projects and activities at the rate and under the authority and conditions provided in the applicable conditions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), less a 0.0554% rescission, until December 11, 2014, or until enactment of regular appropriations legislation. In recent years, continuing resolutions and sequestration have resulted in the annual appropriations process being completed after the start of the fiscal year. This can affect agencies' execution of their R&D budgets, including the delay or cancellation of planned R&D activities and acquisition of R&D-related equipment. |