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2009 US Budget Holds Mixed News For Science

Posted by kdawson on from the squishy-researchers-beware dept.

sciencehabit writes "ScienceNOW has the details on the impacts of President Bush's appropriation request — bad news for biomedicine, better news for the physical sciences. Some agencies really get slammed and many projects are jeopardized. The Bush administration's theory is that a 5-year run-up in National Institutes of Health funding, which ended in 2003, left the federal funding picture seriously unbalanced. Each year since then the administration's budget request for science has moved to shift the balance. Biomedical researchers are expected to lobby hard in Congress for relief. The NYTimes notes that prognosticators expect Congress not to act on a budget until the next President arrives, betting on it being a Democrat. "

3 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Is this a surprise? by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Science has been bad news for Bush's agenda.

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    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  2. Yeah... by Otter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The Bush administration's theory is that a 5-year run-up in National Institutes of Health funding, which ended in 2003, left the federal funding picture seriously unbalanced.

    Meanwhile, it didn't do it any long-term favors to biomedical research, as the NIH and university leaderships handled their huge influx of money about as well as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan did with theirs. There are dozens of universities with new buildings they were planning to pay off with NIH overhead, that are now completely screwed.

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    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  3. It is the fault of Congress by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is true that Bush does not make policy decisions based on scientific research and it is true that some of his personal beliefs run counter to current scientific understanding. This has impacted what science gets funded (as many ex-pat stem cell researchers now in Singapore would tell you).

    However, Bush has budgeted to give science in general quite a bit more funding than what Congress has been willing to sign. He proposed large increases last year, which got cut by Congress & his proposed increases in the physical science this year are actually quite good. (Good enough that surely some think that it isn't fiscally conservative.)

    I'm personally writing my representatives in Congress asking them to not slash the proposed increases as they have done in the past.