U.S. Science Agency Budgets Slated for Increases

Abstract

The Obama administration released more details on 7 May about its proposed US$3.6 trillion federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2010 and the planned significant increases for science agencies and for research and development (see Eos, 90(10), 83, 2009). The budget, which needs to be approved by Congress, includes $147.6 billion for research and development, an increase of $555 million, or 0.4%, above the enacted 2009 budget. In addition, the 2009 budget includes $18.3 billion in stimulus spending for research and development through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, said the FY 2009 and proposed 2010 budgets are among the two largest research and development investments in the nation's history, in real terms. “We in the science and technology community have done better than just about any other constituency in the budget,” Holdren explained in a 7 May budget overview briefing, noting that virtually every science agency is doing better now than it was doing 2 years ago. “We have, in the White House, a president who gets it, believes and gets that investments in science and technology are just that: investments that will pay off.”