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Category: Biomedical Research

FY13 President’s Budget Request

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The President is scheduled to deliver his FY13 budget request to Congress later this morning, kicking off the annual budget and appropriations season. While the details of the budget have remained under wraps until today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a 2013 “Fact Sheet” on Friday revealing that the budget will include strong support for research and development, including “$140.8 billion for R&D overall; increase the level of investment in non-defense R&D by 5 percent from the 2012 level, even as overall budgets decline; maintains the President’s commitment to double the budgets of three key basic research agencies (National Science Foundation, Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and National Institute of Standards and Technology Laboratories); expands and makes permanent the R&D tax credit. [Includes] Level funding for biomedical research at NIHNational Institutes of Health ($30.7 billion); and to get more out of the money, proposes new grant management policies to increase the number of new research grants by 7 percent.”

The President will also request $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade in his FY13 budget, but his proposal to pay for it with revenue increases and spending cuts — already rejected by the special deficit reduction panel last fall — will make it tough to sell to Congress. Half of the deficit reduction would come by increasing revenues, including raising $1 trillion over 10 years by increasing taxes on families earning more than $250,000. Obama’s proposal would cut the deficit to $901 billion by the end of FY13, or about 5.5 percent of the gross domestic product. All told, his proposal would reduce accumulated debt by $3 trillion in addition to the $1 trillion in savings over 10 years already put in place by the BCA. If approved, Obama’s plan would void the automatic across-the-board cuts— known as a sequester— due to kick in January 2013.

Once the budget request is delivered to the Hill, both the House and Senate canCures Acceleration Network begin the annual appropriations process. The usual first step in that process is for both chambers to approve a budget resolution, which gives appropriations committees their top-line numbers on how much to appropriate. This year, however, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that he won’t move a budget resolution to the floor, even if the Senate Budget Committee approves one, since the Budget Control Act (BCA) approved last August already specified the top-line number for FY13. In the House, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will move a budget resolution through his committee, which will likely specify a top-line number even less than what was agreed to in the BCA.

NIH Considers Options for Cuts

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As described in this Science Insider article, NIH has begun to reach out to the community for feedback on what strategies should be considered during an era of reduced budgets. Everything seems to be on the table, from limiting numbers or grants per investigator to capping salaries charged to grants. NIH has put together a web based tool to help model these scenarios, allowing users to visualize cost savings were various strategies to be implemented.  Thanks to Carrie W. at AAU who pointed out this article!

NIH and USDA News Today

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Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction entered by the district court and ruled in favor of the National Institutes of Health and the Administration’s policy on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The ruling states the following: 

“We conclude the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail because Dickey-Wicker is ambiguous and the NIH seems reasonably to have concluded that, although Dickey-Wicker bars funding for the destructive act of deriving an ESC [embryonic stem cell] from an embryo, it does not prohibit funding a research project in which an ESC will be used. We therefore vacate the preliminary injunction.”

As you might recall, last August, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled in favor of two scientist plaintiffs and issued a preliminary injunction that briefly blocked federally funded embryonic stem cell research on the grounds that NIH’s 2009 hESC guidelines violated Dickey-Wicker. Today’s decision vacating that injunction can be viewed here.   There is still the possibility of an appeal. 

Also in the news today, Dr. Roger Beachy, the current Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at USDA, will resign as Director effective May 20, 2011 to spend more time with his family. In the interim, Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young will be named as Acting Director of NIFA.

President’s FY12 Budget Request

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Today, President Obama released a $3.73 trillion budget request for FY12. The White House estimates that the request and projections for spending in the out-years would reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Despite reductions in overall spending, the request contains significant increases for research and development as well as some education programs.

National Institutes of Health– $31.8 billion, an increase of 3.3% over the FY10 level of $30.8 billion

White House/Office of Management and Budget HHS FY12 Budget Summary

National Science Foundation– $7.77 billion, an increase of 13% over the FY10 level of $6.87 billion –keeping the agency on track for a 10-year (FY08-FY17) doubling that is authorized in last year’s America COMPETES Act

NSF FY12 Budget Materials

Department of Energy, Office of Science– $5.4 billion, an increase of 10.2% over the FY10 level of $4.9 billion –keeping the agency on track for a 10-year (FY08-FY17) doubling that is authorized in last year’s America COMPETES Act. $550 million is also included for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to continue support for the promising early-stage research projects that could deliver game-changing clean energy technologies.

DoE FY12 Budget Materials

Department of Defense, Science and Technology– $12.2 billion for science and technology programs, which includes a 2% real growth in basic research

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency– $5.5 billion, an increase of 14.3% over the FY10 level of $4.85 billion

White House/Office of Management and Budget Department of Commerce FY12 Budget Summary

Department of Education–

  • Continues support for a $5,550 maximum Pell Grant award, $819 above the level in 2008, largely paid for by eliminating the year-round Pell Grant and the in-school interest subsidy for graduate and professional student loans
  • Invests $26.8 billion, an increase of 6.9 percent, in a reformed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) focused on raising standards, encouraging innovation, and rewarding success, while allowing States and districts more flexibility to invest resources where they will have the greatest impact. The new ESEA directs funds to reform-oriented competitive initiatives, consolidates dozens of programs, and cuts programs that do not demand results.
  • Provides $1.4 billion for new competitions, modeled on the Race to the Top initiative, to strengthen and reform early childhood education, improve district performance in elementary and secondary education, and improve outcomes in higher education

Department of Education FY12 Budget Materials

National Endowment for the Humanities– $146 million, a decrease of 13% from the FY10 level of $168 million

NEH FY12 Budget Summary

Additional information on President Obama’s FY12 budget request will be posted as it becomes available. The release of the President’s Budget Request (PBR) is the first step in appropriations process for the coming year. After Congress and the President settle on a path forward for FY11 — which began on October 1, 2010 — the FY12 process will begin to move forward.