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BUSH REQUESTS $131.9 BILLION IN 2005 R&D FUNDING

The Bush Administration requested $131.9 billion in federal research and development (R&D) funding for FY2005. This is $5.9 billion above the estimated $126 billion that was appropriated for federal R&D in FY2004. The President's R&D request mirrors recent past proposals with large increases for defense and homeland security R&D, while the remaining agencies are proposed to receive modest increases or reductions in their respective research programs. All FY2004 civilian R&D funding figures include required rescissions.

For FY2005, total defense R&D (the sum of the Department of Defense's (DOD) R&D programs and the Department of Energy's (DOE) defense-related R&D activities) is proposed to increase 6.4% to $74.2 billion, while civilian R&D would increase 2.7% to $57.7 billion. For FY2005, defense R&D would account for 56% of all federal R&D expenditures, while civilian R&D would account for 44%.

The House has passed 12 of its appropriations bills and the Senate six. Congress has passed four appropriations bills, but only two of the bills, Defense and Homeland Security, have R&D programs. Congress approved a record $69.853 billion for DOD's RDT&E program, including a 10.4% increase for DOD's S&T programs (P.L.108-287). Congress approved a 26% increase for DHS's R&D programs (H.Rept. 108-774). The House passed USDA bill (H.R. 4766) would increase agricultural research 4.2% over FY2004. However most of the increases are the related to earmarks that USDA requested be removed from the bill.

Of the remaining appropriations bills that the House acted on, NIH is the only agency that would receive an increase in FY2005. The House passed bill (H.R. 5006) essentially matched the President's proposed 3% increase or $28.607 billion request for NIH, while the Senate Appropriations Committee (S. 2810) approved $29.037 billion. The House Appropriations Committee markup of the VA/HUD/IA bill (H.R. 5041) eliminates most of the R&D associated with President's space exploration initiative. The Committee also cut NSF's FY2005 proposed budget by $300 million, 2% below FY2004 levels. The Senate NSF bill (S. 2825)matches the Presidents' proposed 2.9% increase for NSF. The Commerce/Justice/State Appropriations bill (H.R. 4754) would cut NIST research programs by 14%, including ending federal support for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The House bill would also reduce NOAA's R&D budget 11% below FY2004 levels. The Senate NIST bill (S. 2809) would restore funding for ATP. The House-passed Energy bill (H.R. 4614, H.Rept. 108-554) proposes to reduce funding for Energy Supply R&D 4.5% below FY2004 levels. The House bill would increase funding for DOE's basic science programs 2.8% above FY2004 levels. The Senate has not taken any action on its Energy appropriations bill.

Based on current actions, CRS estimates that the House has approved $131.501 billion for Federal R&D spending in FY2005, a 4.2% increase over FY2004 estimated R&D spending.