TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Resource Center

FROM THE FEDERATION OF MATERIALS SOCIETIES: The president's budget proposal continues the goal of doubling between 2006 and 2016 the research budgets of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the core laboratory programs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as laid out in his American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and the related America COMPETES Act. The three agencies would receive a collective 15% increase over FY 2008. In a dramatic shift from prior years, the administration also is requesting a 19% increase in defense basic research. According to the OSTP, this increase "is consistent with the president’s commitment to support high-value research in the physical sciences. These investments are made to support national security but, due to the broad effects of basic research, also contribute to ACI innovation goals as well." In testimony before the House Science and Technology Committee, Marburger said that the president is "fully committed" to the ACI and chastised Congress for funding only one-third of the administration's ACI request last year and allocating more than one-half the new money to earmarks rather than general growth in the agencies' budgets.

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