President Signs Science Supplemental

On Monday President Bush signed a supplemental appropriations bill granting $337.5 million in additional funding to various federal scientific agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, NASA and the National Institutes of Health. The exact allocations were outlined previously here at Science Progress. The bill is good news for many research groups, including FermiLab in Illinois which canceled plans to layoff about 100 researchers when the President signed the bill.

While this additional funding represents a step in right direction, the additional $150 million sent to the NIH with the passage of this supplemental bill falls woefully short of the annual 10 percent, or $2.59 billion, increase that is necessary to support critical biomedical and health research. The Bush administration has held the NIH budget flat for five years, and inflation has eroded the agency’s purchasing power. In order to truly bolster work that improves our country’s health, grows our economy, fuels the development of renewable energy technologies, and supports basic research, R&D funding for several key agencies should be set on a 10-year doubling course.

Tags: funding. legislation, NASA, NIH, NSF

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