Fy 1989 budget proposal: More support for basic geoscience research

Abstract

President Ronald Reagan's Fiscal Year (FY) 1989 budget—the final spending plan of his 8‐year tenure—contains few real surprises, answers a few questions, and does not seem to have offended many in Congress. Hefty increases in money for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are proposed, while many federal programs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are trimmed.After complete silence last year, the White House renewed support for the Space Station with a big request in the new budget, along with an ambitious space program (see Tables 1 and 2). Even though Congress showed lukewarm support for this program and some other parts of the Reagan science agenda, most congressional leaders and observers are predicting that the new spending plan should make it through the legislature without a big fight, partly because of the distractions of an election year.