Current Status of the Budget for the NSF

Other Issues Relevant to Instrumentation

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Last year, Congress gave NIH the largest increase for medical research in history when they appropriated $15.6 billion for a 15% increase in 1999. This was to represent the first installment of their goal to double research funding over the next five years, which would ultimately lead to a funding level of 40% of received grants. Unfortunately, the increase in the President's budget for Fiscal Year 2000 is a mere 2%, maintaining the strict budgetary caps on discretionary spending enacted in 1997. On the bright side are strong research advocates in the House and Senate, as well as the involvement of FASEB in nearly every phase of the budget resolution debate. According to the FASEB Newsletter, "NIH is on everybody's short list, and all parties agree privately that the emerging surplus will eventually be used to generate a significant amount of money for presidential and congressional priorities." The final appropriations should be settled by this fall, and hopefully will reflect the very strong, documented support of the American public for basic and applied research; see Research America.

The sudden death this July of George Brown (D-CA), Ranking Minority member of the House Science Subcommittee, is a major loss to the scientific community. Brown played a major effective role over many years in advocating support for research and in prompting the scientific community to have a more active role in public policy. He will be sorely missed.