Background

Last year Congress overwhelmingly passed and the President signed the America COMPETES Act, which authorized significant funding increases for the NSF, the DOE Office of Science, and NIST. These agencies were singled out because of their importance to science education and research and to the nation’s economic competitiveness. However, last-minute negotiations between Congress and the White House over the final FY08 omnibus appropriations bill left funding for these three agencies essentially flat, after accounting for inflation, with no new money to expand their research and education programs and in the case of the DOE Office of Science, some programs were drastically cuts resulting in significant layoffs of scientific and technical personnel at labs and universities around the country.

Although funds are tight, there is still time for Congress and the President to reverse this situation by including additional funding for science in the FY08 supplemental appropriations bill in accordance with the funding levels called for by the America COMPETES Act and the Presidents own ACI.

What is a Supplemental Appropriations Bill?

Supplemental appropriations bills are funding vehicles used by Congress and the President to cover unanticipated expenses—for special or emergency needs— that arise after the appropriations for a given fiscal year have been approved. The primary purpose of the FY08 supplemental appropriations bill that Congress will consider in April is to cover costs of the Iraq war. However, the measure also provides the opportunity for Congress to bolster funding for certain domestic priorities, such as science education and research.

Unless additional funding for science is included FY08 supplemental, we will see the following impacts at key research agencies:

• Further drops in the funding rate of grant proposals to university researchers. Success rates at NSF in recent years have experienced significant declines. The shortfall in the FY08 omnibus bill means that 1000 fewer new research grants will be awarded in FY08 (15 percent below the request).
• Planned NSF research programs and solicitations will be put on hold. NSF will be forced to delay planned program expansions and to defer program solicitations in such areas as: computer science education; cyberinfrastructure; climate change; and the science of science and innovation policy. Also delayed is a new Discovery Corps Fellowship program and expansion of undergraduate research centers.
• A cut of 230 graduate fellowships. These fellowships provide students with three years of support for research-focused master's and PhD degrees in science, engineering, and mathematics.
• Cuts to the Faculty Early Career Awards, a program supporting early career development of young professors.
• Cuts to the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), a program that supports active research participation by undergraduates.

• Lost Expertise – Layoffs of more than 500 scientific and technical staff at the national laboratories, a permanent loss of invaluable expertise. Many more jobs will be lost at universities across the country as graduate students, postdocs, researchers, and technicians lose their funding.
• ITER/Fusion– By zeroing out funding in the FY08 omnibus bill for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the U.S. has defaulted on its commitments to this international science project and jeopardized its ability to access to the fruits of this effort aimed at creating a limitless source of energy.
• High Energy Physics – The FY08 omnibus appropriations bill halts American work on next-generation high energy physics programs and forces layoffs of hundreds of scientists and furloughs of many others.
• Basic Energy Sciences – Operations at the light and neutron source facilities will also likely be reduced by as much as 10 percent; nearly 700 proposals responding to a solicitation for energy research have been declined.
• Scientific Workforce – DOE will be unable to offer 300 new pre-service teacher training and undergraduate internship opportunities at the national laboratories.

• NIST Science Initiatives – The NIST laboratories will be unable to fund initiatives in such areas as quantum science, climate change, cybersecurity, and nanotechnology.