UPDATED: Science Triumphs in Obama's 2011 Budget Request

[ProSense]

UPDATED: Science Triumphs in Obama's 2011 Budget Request

by Jeffrey Mervis

Wow. A first, quick look at what President Barack Obama wants to spend next year on science shows across-the-board increases for research and training. Those gains come despite the president's plan to freeze domestic discretionary programs in hopes of reducing a $1.4 trillion deficit.

Here's some of what the president's $3.8 trillion 2011 budget request, submitted this morning, could mean for science, if Congress were to go along:

• A $1 billion increase, to $32.1 billion, for the National Institutes of Health. That 3%-plus boost is aimed at keeping NIH on pace with inflationary costs for doing biomedical research.
  
• A $550 million boost, to $7.4 billion, for the National Science Foundation. Almost all of that 8% increase would go to NSF's six research directorates, with a special emphasis on clean energy and sustainability. Its education and training programs would rise by 2%.
  
• A $226 million hike, to $5.1 billion, for the Office of Science within the Department of Energy (DOE). The department's 3-year-old effort to jump-start a low-carbon economy, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, would get $300 million as its first annual budget. A scaled-down education and training initiative, RE-ENERGYSE, would get $74 million, after Congress rejected a much larger program proposed last year.
  
• A $540 million boost, to $5 billion, for science programs within NASA. The increase comes as part of the Administration's proposed reshuffling of priorities on human space exploration. That plan includes a heavy-lift rocket for exploration beyond the moon and the commercial sector taking on responsibility for getting astronauts to the low-Earth-orbit international space station.
  
• A $164 million jump, to $429 million, in the competitively awarded research programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  
• A $67 million increase, to $587 million, for the basic science programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIST is one of three agencies—NSF and DOE's Office of Science round out the trio—that have been promised a doubled research budget over 10 years. The Administration's 2011 budget for all three is in line with that pledge.

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[Ian David]

1. McCain would have increased funding for demonic possession and corrupted humors. n/t

[Kdillard]

2. That is very cool. Hope Congress goes along.

[Arkana]

3. That's a breath of fresh air.

I'd like to see what these institutes got in the Bush budgets, though.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. Yeah, but it's not the moon and therefore it is worthless.

MOON!!

[LisaM]

5. But he's cutting funding for Great Lakes restoration

with peeves me.


http://www.freep.com/article/20100201/NEWS15/100201023/1318/Obama-budget-may-cut-into-EFV-funds-Great-Lakes-preservation

[ProSense]

6. Looks like it's specific to a vehicle with significant technological problems. n/t

[LisaM]

7. No, there's two things involed in the article

that's a separate thing.

[impik]

8. Of course. This man is probably the only one who knows what they're doing