Research Reporter: October 2007
Research Information from the University of Michigan

Washington Update

Research programs face budget impasse, veto threat

By Sarah Walkling
Director of Federal Relations for Research & Assistant Director of the UM Washington, D.C. office

The annual fight over the federal budget has reached its traditional end of the year impasse.

Though the new fiscal year started two weeks ago, none of the FY08 twelve appropriations bills that fund the federal government has been passed. All federal programs - domestic and defense - are currently operating at FY07 levels.

Central to the stalling of the appropriations process is disagreement over funding for domestic spending between the White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Congress proposes $23 billion more for domestic programs than the President put in his FY08 budget request. Student aid, climate change research and biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are some of the domestic programs covered. President Bush has threatened to veto any bill that exceeds his request.

Overall this means that recent troubling trends continue in some areas, such as NIH funding. The few bright spots of good news, such as possible budget increases for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy's Office of Science, are on hold until Congress and the White House resolve their differences over spending.

For the NIH, the House of Representatives advocates a $1 billion addition to the President's request, bringing the total dollars for the agency to $29.9 billion for FY08. The Senate would add $1.2 billion. These additional sums, however, would only provide a 2.4 percent and 3.3 percent increase over last year for this critical research engine.

The NSF and the Office of Science could fare better than the NIH. This reflects bipartisan support for substantially increasing funding for the physical sciences over the next decade.

The President has suggested a budget of $6.4 billion for the NSF - a 7 percent increase. In comparison, the House has proposed $6.5 billion and the Senate, $6.6 billion. The additional money added by Congress would largely go to expanding the NSF's educational efforts.

Where domestic appropriations bills exceed the President's budget request, the White House's Office of Management and Budget has issued a veto threat, stating that the bills include "an irresponsible and excessive level of spending."

It is unknown when or how the differences between Congress and the President will be resolved. Some in Congress have expressed hope that the issue will be settled before the New Year.

While negotiations on the fate of federal research programs progress, the University of Michigan, with the other members of the higher education community, will continue to advocate for funding levels that will enable researchers to do the cutting edge research needed for scientific progress and to improve the lives of families throughout the country.

Sarah Walkling can be reached in Washington at (202) 554-0578. Her e-mail address is: skwa@umich.edu

October 2007

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