Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2019

Public Affairs

NSF Sees Long-awaited Funding Increase in FY 2019 Funding Package

President Trump Budget Proposal Outlines Cuts to Science On March 11, the Trump Administration released its $4.75 trillion “skinny” budget proposal. The budget’s release was delayed due to the partial government shutdown. The President’s budget does not carry the weight of law, but it does provide revealing information on the Administration’s spending and policy priorities. The request takes sequestration, mandated defense and non-defense spending cuts if Congress fails to enact a budget deal, into account. The proposal recommends considerable spending reductions at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science: On February 15, President Trump signed into a law a Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 funding package that avoided another partial gov- ernment shutdown. Tucked into the nearly $1.2 trillion package was a spending increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF’s budget will increase four percent to $8.1 billion compared to FY 2018 levels. In the package, Congress indi- cated its support for NSF’s 10 Big Ideas initiatives, urged NSF to continue to invest in advancing computing technologies, and required NSF to formally explore intellectual property protection initiatives with the research. The funding will carry through September 30, 2019, the end of the Fiscal Year.

FY 2019 Budget Request

FY 2019 Enacted

FY 2020 Budget Request

Agency

National Institutes of Health National Science Foundation

$34 Billion 7.4 Billion 5.3 Billion

$39 Billion $8 Billion 6.5 Billion

$33 Billion $7.1 Billion $5.5 Billion

Department of Energy Office of Science

The Biophysical Society, through its various coalitions, has expressed concerned to Congress over the proposed cuts to science. Again, the President’s request does not have the force of law and is often considered dead-on-arrival in Congress. However, the research community will have to continue to work with and cultivate Congressional champions to ensure sufficient support for science on the hill. PessimismGrowing Around Potential Congressional Budget Deal In February 2018, Congress was able to reach a budget deal that raised the spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 and paved the way for the recent research funding successes seen in FY 2018 and 2019. Just in FY 2019, for example, the National Science Foundation received over $8 billion in funding for the first time in its history and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) received their funding on-time for the first time in decades. However, there is no grand budget deal on the table for FYs 2020 and 2021 and, without one, non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending may take up to a $50 billion hit, as the BCA caps will return. Both the NIH and NSF funding counts as NDD spending.

April 2019

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