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President Issues Budget for FY 2009
- NIH |
- NSF |
- Veterans Affairs |
- NASA
On February 4, 2008 President Bush issued his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2009. The Administration is seeking to control spending by holding non-defense domestic discretionary programs at FY 2008 levels. The $3.1 trillion spending measure covers all federal programs, including those for life sciences research.
The President’s budget reflects the priorities established in the American Competitiveness Initiative and the America COMPETES Act of 2007. It proposes significantly increased funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Most biomedical research programs do not fare as well. If enacted, the Administration’s budget would hold the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to its FY 2008 level and cut Veterans’ Affairs (VA) medical and prosthetic by nearly 8%. NASA as a whole would increase by 1.8%, with funding for life sciences research increasing by 3.4%. Details for each agency’s budget proposal are below.
While the budget presents a mixed picture for life sciences research, the current political climate makes it unlikely that the Administration’s proposal will be enacted in its current form. With the distraction of the Presidential and Congressional elections in November, there is speculation that the budget for FY 2009 may not be complete until as late as January 2009, when a new administration will be in place. Despite the fact that the Administration will be new, there are significant economic pressures that will continue to make it a challenge to increase funding for research.
National Institutes of Health
The Administration’s budget proposal would provide the NIH with $29.3 billion in FY 2009, the same as the current (FY 2008) level. This falls significantly below FASEB’s budget recommendation of $31.2 billion, and provides no inflationary increase even though the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI) is 3.5%.
Most institutes and centers would receive slight increases over last year with money freed up by the proposed elimination of the Children’s Health Study. The proposal would fund approximately 9700 competing awards, with a success rate of 18% overall. The total number of research project grants would be 36,516, a drop of more than 500 when compared to FY 2007. Funding for NIH Roadmap programs would increase by $38 million to a total of $534 million, representing a total of 1.8% of the NIH budget. Pre- and post-doctoral fellows would receive 1% salary increases, and NIH would continue to prioritize funding for new and young investigators. Approximately 240 Director’s Bridge Awards would be distributed to sustain investigators whose funding has lapsed.
More details about the NIH budget proposal
Back to TopNational Science Foundation
Under the President’s proposal, the NSF would receive an increase of $822 million, a 13.6% increase over FY 2008 for a total of $6.85 billion. While the proposal would boost the NSF budget above last year, the level falls well short of the planned budget doubling laid out in the America COMPETES Act, which would have funded the agency at $7.33 billion, which is the same as FASEB’s FY 2009 recommendation.
The bulk of the increase would go to Research and Related Activities (R&RA), for an increase of $772 million. This would allow the agency to fund an additional 1370 research grants and increase the funding rate to 23%. Within R&RA, the Biological Sciences (BIO) Directorate would increase by $63 million (10.3%). The NSF plans to invest in four cross-foundation initiatives, two of which involve BIO. The Adaptive Systems Technology will focus on “generating creative pathways and natural interfaces between human physical systems that will revolutionize the development of novel adaptive systems” and the Dynamics of Water Processes in the Environment “aims to increase fundamental understanding of the Earth’s freshwater systems and provide the scientific basis for decision-making about water resources.”
More information about these initiatives and the NSF budget
Back to TopVeterans Affairs
In FY 2008, Congress added emergency funds to the VA medical and prosthetic research budget, bringing it to a total of $480 million. If enacted, the Administration’s budget would reduce funding for medical and prosthetic research programs at the VA by nearly 8% ($38 million), bringing the funding to $442 million in FY 2009. FASEB and the Friends of VA recommend an increase of $75 million to $555 million, with an additional $45 million for building and infrastructure development in FY 2009.
Priorities in the VA budget include research into combat-related injuries (traumatic brain injury, amputation and prosthetics, post-traumatic stress disorder), mental health (combat-related, substance abuse, anxiety disorders, depression, and dementia), personalized medicine, care for chronic conditions and long-term care for older veterans.
Back to TopNASA
The proposal for NASA’s FY 2009 budget would give the agency an additional $304.8 million, bringing the total budget to $17.6 billion (1.8% increase). The budget for the Human Research Program (HRP), which conducts research and develops countermeasures with the goal of enabling safe and productive human space exploration, would increase by $5 million (3.4%) to $151.9 million.
The HRP is focused on studying the physiological and behavioral effects of prolonged spaceflight and the effects of environmental radiation exposure on the human body, with the goal of reducing the risks associated with human spaceflight by developing countermeasures and technologies.
For more information, see the NASA budget page.
Back to Top Back to Bioscience Briefing