AAS Informational Email 2007-03

The President's FY08 Budget and Astronomy

Jeremy Richardson, (AAS John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow), Jack Burns (Chair, AAS Committee for Astronomy and Public Policy), and Kevin Marvel (AAS Executive Officer)

SUMMARY

The President's proposed FY08 budget contains good news for astronomy. Through the President's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), funding for non-security Research and Development (R&D) is slated to increase. NSF sees a 6.8% increase overall, NASA receives a 3.1% increase, and the Department of Energy's Office of Science also receives a 7.2% increase, all relative to the President's FY07 request. These proposed increases are extremely positive, given the current budget climate, in which the President is proposing to restrict discretionary, non-security-related spending to 1%, less than the rate of inflation. The impact on astronomy, however, remains somewhat unclear, since Congress has not yet finished its work on the FY07 budget and will likely make changes to the proposed FY08 budget. This informational email serves as a summary of the budget picture as proposed by the President, and more details will follow as they become available.

DETAILS

Following is a brief description of the President's proposed budget for astronomy-related research (all increases are quoted relative to the FY07 request):

NSF:
Overall: +6.8% to $6.43 billion (increase of $409 million); Mathematical and
Physical Science: +8.9% to $1.253 billion (increase of $102.7 million)
Astronomical Sciences: +8.3% to $232.97 million (increase of $17.87 million)
Within Astronomical Sciences, the only decrease is for the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC, -0.1%) and for LIGO (-14.5%), but the latter represents only a shift to the Advanced LIGO project.

NASA:
Overall: +3.1% to $17.3 billion
Science Mission Directorate: +3.5% to $5.516 billion (increase of $186million)

The AAS Executive Committee and the Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy are actively working on a policy response to the budget proposal. Pay attention to AAS Action Alerts and Informational Emails for the most accurate information on the budget situation as well as descriptions of positive actions you can make to help secure a bright future for astronomy funding.

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Mailed to AAS members from aas.org 7 February 2007. To unsubscribe or change address contact mailto:address@aas.org

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