Earlier this week, the Administration released its funding recommendations for fiscal year (FY) 2008 spending. This action comes before Congress has finalized FY 2007 spending, which was left unfinished by the 109^th Congress. Currently, a joint resolution negotiated by both chambers of Congress has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting Senate action. The joint resolution would continue 2006 funding levels, with a few exceptions including the $600 million increase for the NIH. The Senate has until February 15 to act before the current continuing resolution expires.

The Administration’s FY 2008 recommendations for federal research agencies are located in the table below. It is important to note that because the FY 2008 Administration proposal was issued before the 2007 appropriations process came to a close, and will be considered by the newly elected Congress controlled by Democrats, it is likely that the figures will change considerably during the appropriations process.

	FY 07 Request*	FY 07 Joint Res.	FY 08 Request	% Change v. 07 Request	% Change v. 07 Joint Res.
NIH	$28.389	$28.931	$28.621	0.10%	-1.00%
NSF	$6.020	$5.962	$6.429	6.79%	7.82%
VA (Medical and Prosthetic Research)	$0.409	$0.412	$0.411	0.50%	-0.24%
NASA (Human Research Program)	$0.178	$0.178	$0.183	2.80%	2.80%
*All dollar amounts are in billions

National Institutes of Health

The Administration proposed funding the NIH at $28.621 billion, an increase of $232 million over the FY 2007 request. However, in FY 2008 the agency would be required to transfer an additional $200 million to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, bringing their actual increase to only $32 million over the previous year. Compared to the House passed joint resolution for 2007 funding, the Administration’s 2008 proposal would result in a decrease of approximately $500 million after accounting for the transfer. The Administration’s proposal projects that NIH will be able to support more new and competing R01 awards as grants awarded in 2004 come to a close. New awards and renewals will not receive any adjustments for inflation over the last year, resulting in decreased purchasing power for all grants when accounting for the biomedical research and development price index (BRDPI). The proposed FY 2008 budget also holds stipend levels for National Research Service Awards to last year’s level.  

FASEB’s funding recommendation for the NIH in FY 2008 proposes a model that would help the agency get “back on track” after consecutive years of sub-inflationary increases. Based on the size of the NIH budget at the end of the doubling in 2003, FASEB calculated what the budget would be had it increased by BRDPI each year. Based on those calculations, FASEB predicts that 6.9% increases over each of the next three years would return the agency’s purchasing power to the level it achieved in 2003.

National Science Foundation

As one of the agencies included in the Administration’s American Competitiveness Initiative, the NSF is slated to receive a sizable increase for the second year in a row. The Administration proposes an increase of 6.8% over the FY 2007 request, bringing the agency to $6.4 billion, which would keep NSF on track to double its budget over the next ten years. This comes close to the level of funding that FASEB recommends for NSF this year, $6.5 billion.

Veterans Affairs Medical and Prosthetic Research

After proposing a slight cut to the VA medical and prosthetic research budget last year, the Administration proposes to fund the programs at $411 million in FY 2008. This figure is $2 million above the FY 2007 proposal, but represents a $1 million cut when compared to the level at which the programs are funded in the House passed joint resolution. Funding for medical and prosthetic research has stagnated in recent years, and this year FASEB recommends that the program receive $480 million, as well as an additional $45 million for infrastructure improvement.

NASA

Despite an overall increase in the NASA budget, research programs in general and the life sciences in particular continue to lose out at the agency. Following on last year’s drastic cuts to the biological research program, the Administration recommends a slight increase to $183.4 million. FASEB recommends an increase of at least $39.5 million over last year’s request for life sciences research at the NASA.

To learn more about the FY 2008 budget proposals:

FASEB’s pre-publication funding report:
http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/final_funding_fy2008.pdf

FASEB’s summary of 08 budgets:
http://opa.faseb.org/pages/WashingtonUpdate/Feb607/default.htm

Articles in the scientific press:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5813/750 
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/49077/

AAAS budget page:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/