What science advocates had hoped would be a banner funding year in 2022 for federal science agencies has fallen victim to a bipartisan push to spend much more on defense than President Joe Biden had requested.
Last week, Congress agreed to give roughly 5% more money to many federal science agencies when it passed a $1.5-trillion government budget for 2022. But what science advocates had hoped would be a banner funding year fell victim to a bipartisan push to spend much more on defense than President Joe Biden had requested—and to one Democratic senator’s rejection of a separate Biden plan to allocate billions of additional dollars for research.
The National Science Foundation had an even wilder roller-coaster ride. In addition to Biden’s request for a 20% boost, to $10.2 billion, NSF was slated to get several billion more under the president’s proposed $2.2 trillion social welfare initiative, called Build Back Better . Some of the money was for a new research directorate aimed at accelerating emerging technologies.
Republicans are claiming victory for adjusting what they called a misguided imbalance in spending priorities, given rising tensions with China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I insisted on dollar-for-dollar parity between defense and nondefense increases,” said Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate appropriations panel, adding that the final version cuts “billions of dollars in wasteful proposed spending by the president.
Earmarks are a sensitive issue for the U.S. research community: Critics say they violate the principle of using merit to select projects, whereas supporters say they level the playing field and allow institutions to address pressing needs. Congress banned them in 2010 but revived them in 2021 under new rules designed to curb excesses. Now, Shelby and Blunt have broadened what earmarks can fund. “I’ve never heard of using earmarks for a school’s endowment,” says one higher education lobbyist.
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