The Funding Game

Abstract

IT’S NO SECRET that the federal budget is facing tough times. Both Congress and the President are trying to stretch the available, but limited, discretionary funds within the budget to cover as many programs as possible. Unfortunately, such tactics create nothing more than a shell game in which there are no real winners. Take science funding, for example. Last year, Congress passed the America Competes Act, which, among other things, authorized a 10-year budget doubling for the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards & Technology, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The bill was the product of the American Competiveness Initiative (ACI), which was introduced by the Bush Administration in early 2006. Although it was hailed as a victory for the physical sciences, ACI failed to translate into actual money for the targeted agencies. In fact, Congress actually portioned out only modest increases for the agencies targeted by ACI, increases that ...