AAS Informational Email 2004-03The President's FY 2005 Budget Summary This informational email provides an overview of the proposed FY 2005 budgets of the two main agencies that fund astronomy, NASA and NSF. Introduction Each year, the President delivers the budget for the next fiscal year to the Congress shortly after the State of the Union address. This year, this busy day took place on February 2, 2004. Along with the President's budget roll-out, the President's science advisor, Jack Marburger, held a briefing as did the other government agencies, including NASA and NSF. These briefings allow the key
players to announce the priority items for the coming fiscal year and
to present the distribution of funding increases and decreases. Most science
societies send representatives to these events and the AAS is no exception.
We were able to attend The Overall Budget Picture The overall budget picture for the United States is focused on three priorities: winning the war on terrorism, protecting the homeland and strengthening the economy. Auxiliary priorities include education, health care and helping those most in need. Given these priorities, it is easy to expect that science will receive little budgetary attention. Luckily, astronomy actually fares well within this overall budgetary environment. Across all government programs, the average increase in discretionary spending as proposed by the President is only 0.5%. Keep this number in mind as you read the detailed information on the proposed agency budgets. Putting on the Brakes The President's budget essentially calls for no increase in basic research
funding. In documents released at a special OSTP/OMB briefing on the science
budget on February 2, Basic Research funding would total $26.8 billion
in 2005, compared to a non-inflation adjusted level of $26.7 billion in
FY 2004. Considering inflation, the basic research budget actually shrinks
in the President's 2005 budget. In fact, the overall federal basic research
budget growth from year to year has steadily eroded under the Bush administration.
From a level of $21.3 billion in 2001, funding grew to $23.8 billion in
2002, 25.3 billion in 2003 and $26.7 billion in 2004. These increases
represent non-inflation adjusted growth in basic research of 11.7% from
2001 to 2002, 6.4% from 2002 to 2003, 5.5% from 2003 to 2004, and 0.3%
from 2004 to 2005. Considering inflation, the NASA The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration received new direction from the President this year
in a special announcement that NASA will now be focused on returning humans
to the Moon and, subsequently, Mars. However, despite the dramatic January
announcement of this initiative by the President from NASA headquarters,
followed by detailed information from Administrator O'Keefe, this new
vision was not mentioned in the State of the Union address. Typically,
NASA's budget actually increases significantly in the President's proposed FY 2005 budget. The full agency budget, including supporting documents is available at http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/index.html. Compared to the final FY 2004
budget as approved by the Congress in late January, NASA would see a 5.6%
increase from $15.378 billion to $16.244 billion. The Office of Space
Science sees significant growth from $3.971 billion in FY 2004 to $4.138
billion for FY 2005. This In the NASA budget documents, the FY 2004 comparisons are made to the initial congressional conference report and do not include an across-the-board reduction finally agreed to by the Congressional appropriators. For consistency, here we reference the numbers as presented in the online budget documents. A more complete analysis will be sent to AAS members in the form of a special publication later in February. Portions of the Office of Space
Science budget specifically tied to "Exploration" see increases,
others see decreases in the President's FY 2005 budget. The reduction
in the Solar System Exploration (SSE) budget is marginally offset by the
formation of a new enterprise, the The Astronomical Search for
Origins, one of the key funding areas for astronomy and astrophysics within
OSS receives $1.067 billion compared to $899 million in FY 2004. The Sun-Earth
Connection enterprise receives $745.9 million overall, a reduction compared
to the FY 2004 The Structure and Evolution
of the Universe reduction from $406 million to $378 million is specifically
tied to ramp-outs in the Constellation X and LISA missions, which will
be more fully dealt with in the FY 2006 budget (according to the FY 2005
budget documents) and NSF The NSF budget documents make budget comparisons to the estimated final FY 2004 level, which is very close to final appropriated levels. A full comparison with the final appropriated FY 2004 funds will be sent to AAS members in a special publication in late February. The NSF sees an overall increase
of 3.0% from $5.577 billion to $5.745 billion, or a little over $167 million.
Given the average increase across all discretionary spending of 0.5%,
this is a healthy proposed budget. Within this overall total, the Mathematics
and Physical Sciences directorate sees an increase of 2.2% or $24 million
from an FY 2004 level of $1.091 billion to $ 1.115 billion. The Division
of Astronomical Sciences, or AST, resides within this directorate and
will receive a 4% ($7.8 million) overall growth from $196.5 million in
FY 2004 to $204.4 million in FY 2005. This should be taken in comparison
with the increases for the other MPS directorates of 2% for The NSF also supports astronomy
through the Office of Polar Programs, the Atmospheric Sciences (contained
with the Geosciences directorate), the Major Research Equipment and Facilities
Construction account and the Major Research Instrumentation accounts as
well as Analysis It is always difficult to receive
the news that the programs promoting astronomy are not being supported
more dramatically within the President's budget. We know the public values
the results of our research and that astronomy speaks to all Americans,
but we must never forget that astronomy is only a minor percentage of
the overall federal budget. On the positive side, in both the FY 2005
NASA and NSF budgets, astronomy sees significant increases compared to
the "The President proposes
and the Congress disposes" is a well known phrase in Washington.
It also is an easy way to remember the fundamental reality that the President's
budget represents a marker It is up to us, the astronomy
public, to carry our needs to our members of Congress, especially if those
needs are not met by the President's budget request. The AAS co-sponsors
a Congressional Kevin B. Marvel, Deputy Executive
Officer
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