By Kei Koizumi, American Association for the Advancement of Science

On February 4, President Bush released his proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2009. The $3.1 trillion budget projects a deficit exceeding $400 billion next year, despite excluding most 2009 war costs and holding domestic spending flat. Within a flat domestic budget, the 2009 budget continues to propose large increases for the three physical sciences agencies in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), increases for human spacecraft development, flat funding for biomedical research in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and mostly increases in other parts of the federal research and development (R&D) portfolio but cuts for key agricultural and environmental R&D agencies. Defense R&D would continue to increase, and next year defense basic research in the physical sciences would share in the gains. Despite tough budget conditions, the overall federal investment in R&D would increase $4.6 billion or 3.3 percent to $145.4 billion, driven primarily by increases in development funding.

The federal investment in basic and applied research would fall 0.5 percent to $57.1 billion in 2009 as proposed gains in the ACI agencies would be offset by cuts in other agencies’ research funding, primarily cuts in congressional earmarks. In real terms, the federal investment would fall 9 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2004 and 2009.