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NSF Congressional Update
107th Congress
February 13, 2002
House Science Committee Holds Hearing on President's
Budget Request for Research and Development
 On
February 13, the House Science Committee held a hearing
to examine the President's budget request for research
and development.
Testifying at the hearing were: Dr. Jack Marburger,
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy;
Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science
Foundation; Dr. Samuel Bodman, Deputy Secretary of
the Department of Commerce; and Dr. Bruce Carnes,
Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Energy.
In his opening statement Chairman Boehlert noted that
the R&D priorities in the President's budget request
for research and Development were biomedical research
and homeland security. But he questioned whether these
priorities provide an appropriate balance, particularly
for the long-term basic research supported at NSF,
emphasizing that tahae NIH budget is now larger than
the rest of the civil science agencies put together,
and that the FY 03 increase for NIH is larger than
the entire NSF research budget. Other members, concurring
with the Chairman's support for the NIH increase,
also questioned whether growth in health research
was coming at the expense of non-biomedical investments.
Dr. Marburger stated that the Administration's priorities
- national security, homeland security, and economic
growth - were reflected in the budget request, and
are the appropriatae priorities at this time. . Overall,
R&D is up by 8 percent in the budget and important
cross-cutting areas such and nanoscale science and
engineering were increasing at an even faster rate.
Dr. Colwell outlined the NSF priorities, including
the President's Math and Science Partnership program,
increases in graduate fellowship stipends, information
technology research, mathematical and statistical
sciences, nanoscale science and engineering, biocomplexity
in the environment, and a new priority area of social,
behavioral, and economic sciences.
Committee members praised NSF's programs generally
and most questions from the committee reflected member's
concerns over the imbalance between health research
and other research programs and how the budget would
affect research important to their state and local
economies.
See also:
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