Definitive analysis of President's FY2003 R&D budget...( Washington D.C. -22 March 2002- An u...)

Washington, D.C. -22 March 2002- An updated analysis of U.S. President George W. Bush's fiscal year (FY) 2003 budget proposal for research and development (R&D), based on new data from federal agencies, is now available for online previewing through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The full report will be released at the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Colloquium, 11 - 12 April 2002, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

The AAAS Report XXVII: Research and Development FY 2003 is the definitive guide to the R&D budget, providing detailed analyses of the President's budget proposals for research in all federal agencies. The report points to trends in funding based on legislative history, and examines the impact of funding on individual agencies.

This version of the AAAS report supersedes previous, preliminary analyses of R&D in the FY2003 budget. A preview of the new document, based on agency data acquired after the release of the President's budget, is available online at http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/prev03p.htm.

Citing the war on terrorism and a weak economy as justifications for a return to deficit spending, the President proposes tax cuts and large increases in discretionary spending for FY 2003. These follow even larger tax cuts and spending increases in FY 2002. The FY 2003 budget calls for overall increases in federal investment in R&D, especially for the high-priority areas of defense, health, and homeland security. Echoing last year's request, however, the President would target the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for increases, leaving all other R&D programs overall with flat or declining budgets.

Among the trends noted:

• Because the DOD and the NIH are the two largest funding sources of federal R&D and high priorities for the Bush Administration, total federal
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