The budget blueprint that President Bush released last week
provides insight into the new Administration’s approach to
budgeting for a wide range of programs. The following
selections present additional information of interest. A
forthcoming FYI will contain reactions to the S&T budget
request.

MODERATING GROWTH IN SPENDING: “For the past three
years…appropriated spending has grown by an average of six
percent.” “If growth continued at a six percent pace going
forward, an additional $1.4 trillion of the surplus would be
consumed over 10 years – approximately the amount of the
President’s tax cut.” History has shown that – unlike tax
cuts – spending increases, once made, are rarely reversed.
This pattern cannot long continue without jeopardizing our
Nation’s long-term goals. Discretionary spending growth
should be held to the inflation rate. This will mean
redeploying resources away from programs that have achieved
their goals or failed. It will also mean exercising restraint
both in the Administration and in Congress.”

EARMARKING: “In addition to higher spending, budget surpluses
have led to a dramatic increase in congressional earmarks.
The result is that the Government is not only producing more
spending, but more unjustified spending. During this past
year, the explosion in spending was accompanied by an
unprecedented 6,000 plus earmarks in appropriations bills.”

R&E TAX CREDIT: “The President’s tax plan also supports a
permanent extension of the Research and Experimentation (R&E)
Credit. This credit supports the type of technological
developments that have fueled the recent boom in productivity
growth. By making the credit permanent, the President will
give firms the incentive to undertake long-term research
projects that could well provide the next round of
technological breakthroughs for future generations.”

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: “The President recognizes the
importance of health care to America’s families. The 2002
Budget includes targeted investments in key Presidential
priority areas such as improving biomedical research….”
“During the campaign, then-Governor Bush pledged to complete
the effort to double NIH’s budget in five years, a goal that
is supported in Congress by a bipartisan coalition.” “NIH is
working to meet the management challenges that can arise when
an agency receives a substantial infusion of resources over a
short period of time. NIH is in the process of identifying
strategies and policies that could be implemented in 2002 and
2003 and beyond to maximize budgetary and management
flexibility in the future.” “Once the doubling effort is
complete, NIH will receive stable, moderate funding increases
to continue to support investments in biomedical research that
improves the health of all Americans.”

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: “First, the President believes that the
Nation’s defense strategy should drive decisions on defense
resources, not the other way around. For this reason, the
Secretary of Defense will conduct a strategy review to create
a vision for the role of the Nation’s military in the 21st
Century. This review will examine the appropriate national
security strategy, force structure, and budget priorities. It
will guide future decisions on military spending. To
speculate now on the results of this strategy review could
compromise the outcome. Consequently, the Administration will
determine final 2002 and outyear funding levels only when the
review is complete. Second, the President believes America
must rethink the requirements of deterrence in our current
security environment. The President proposes to maintain the
lowest number of nuclear weapons consistent with our present
and future national security needs. The review will also
identify the Nation’s missile defense needs.”

NASA: “Critical Capabilities: U.S. academia and industry
provide a rich R&D resource that NASA can tap to strengthen
its mission capabilities. NASA will develop an integrated,
long-term agency plan that ensures a national capability to
support NASA’s mission by: identifying NASA’s critical
capabilities and, through the use of external reviews,
determining which capabilities must be retained by NASA and
which can be discontinued or led outside the agency; expanding
collaboration with industry, universities, and other agencies,
and outsourcing appropriate activities to fully leverage
outside expertise; and pursuing civil service reforms for
capabilities that NASA must retain, to ensure recruitment and
retention of top science, engineering, and management talent
at NASA.”

K-12 MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION: “Although U.S. fourth
graders did relatively well in both math and science, by
twelfth grade, the last year of mandatory schooling, U.S.
students were among the very worst in the world, and in some
areas, such as physics, were last. This evidence indicates
that our schools are not preparing our students adequately for
today’s knowledge-based, technologically rich society or to
become future scientists and engineers. Among the underlying
causes for the poor performance of U.S. students in the areas
of math and science, three problems must be addressed: too
many teachers teaching these subjects for which they have not
been trained; too few students taking advanced coursework; and
too few schools offering challenging curriculum and
textbooks.”

FUTURE GROWTH IN FEDERAL SPENDING: “To ensure that the Federal
Government continues to pay down the debt, the President
proposes limits that would allow discretionary spending to
grow with inflation over the next five years.”

GROWTH-ENHANCING POLICIES: “The advances made over the last
two decades provide a solid foundation for further growth
going forward, assuming the Nation continues to pursue growth-
enhancing policies.”

CORRECTIONS TO FYI#24: Please excuse two typos in FYI #24,
“Bush Administration FY 2002 S&T Request.” The apparent
requested total increase for NSF, NASA, and DOE science is
$300 million. Last October’s increase in the NSF budget for
the current fiscal year was $529 million. A corrected version
of this FYI can be accessed at:

http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/2001/024.html

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Richard M .Jones

Public Information Division

The American Institute of Physics

fyi@aip.org

(301) 209-3095

http://www.aip.org/gov

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