Obama’s final budget request brings mixed news for science agencies
On February 9th the president released his final budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget. The administration proposes $4.23 trillion in budget authority and $3.64 trillion in revenue for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The administration projects $4.15 trillion in actual spending (outlays) in FY 2017, resulting in a deficit of $503 billion. At face-value, ASPET members should be pleased that the administration prioritized research; but the president's budget contains mixed news for the federal science agencies; and the viability of his funding proposal is doubtful.
The budget follows the FY 2017 discretionary spending caps agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. However, the president’s 10-year plan proposes to repeal the sequester-lowered discretionary caps and the across-the-board cuts to mandatory spending programs in future years, starting in FY 2018. In what appears to be a move to alleviate some of the pressure of the discretionary spending caps, the President proposed mandatory funding for a number of programs, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME), and the initiative to expand access to treatment for prescription drug abuse and heroin use.
The proposal includes minimal increases to the FDA other than $75 million in mandatory spending to be directed towards the cancer Moonshot project; the $2.74 billion proposed would keep the budget just about flat. The National Science Foundation would receive a 6.7% increase, also seeking funds from both discretionary and mandatory spending sources. The proposal also includes a 3.6 % decrease in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, the use of mandatory funding would limit congressional oversight of the programs, making it even less likely to pass in Congress. Many in the research community have joined legislators in expressing their concern about the amount of mandatory funding proposed in the president's budget; while overall funding for NIH is increased by about $1 billion in the request, discretionary budget authority is actually cut by about a billion, using requested $1.8 billion in mandatory money to supplant discretionary funding, effecting all 27 NIH institutes and centers.
Regardless of its viability, the administration’s budget proposal reflects an increased interest in science. It would increase basic research funding $900 million over 2016 levels for work at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In addition to $195 million to fund a new cancer research “Moonshot,” the administration proposes $33 billion for the NIH to increase biomedical research, which would include continued funding for the BRAIN initiative and a new Precision Medicine effort. ASPET appreciates the proposed increases in the president's budget. There is concern, however that the proposed funding for the NIH is not adequate to support the broad range of research grants that are the fundamental to innovation. Amid the continues uncertainty, this has been a historic year fort bipartisan support of the sciences and ASPET will continue to advocate and convey to legislators the importance of a budget that continues to prioritize biomedical research.
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Last updated: February 23, 2016