^{April Issue, 2008, Vol 10}

At IMECE 2007, the ASME Board on Government Relations along with the ASME Committee on Early Career Development and ASME Center for Public Awareness held a joint session entitled “The Federal R&D Budget and How It Affects the Engineering Profession.”  This event was moderated by Dr. John Cipolla of Northeastern University and featured Kei Koizumi, Director of the R&D Budget and Policy Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); and, Dr. Richard Buckius, Assistant Director for Engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Koizumi (26:08 mins) began the session by discussing the America COMPETES Act of 2007, a bipartisan measure passed by Congress that contained considerable increases for R&D funding for a number of agencies critical to science and engineering such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC), and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST).  This bill, signed into law by the President in August 2007, was consistent with the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) that was introduced by the President shortly after his 2006 State of the Union address.  Koizumi said these initiatives were indicative of the growing consensus among policy makers, engineers, and scientists that substantial national efforts related to research and development (R&D) funding in the physical sciences and engineering are needed to preserve the nation’s competitiveness.

Kei Koumi's presentation slides ^(Powerpoint)

Koizumi also provided an overview of the President’s FY 2008 R&D budget request and the House and Senate FY 2008 appropriations bills, pointing out that both measures contained appropriations levels at or above that of the America COMPETES Act.  Dr. Buckius (25:11 mins)  then summarized for attendees how the NSF correlated with the national goals of the America COMPETES Act, and presented the specifics of the President’s FY 2008 budget request for the NSF Engineering Directorate.  

Dr. Buckius presentation slides ^(Powerpoint)

Finally, during the moderated discussion with Dr. Cipolla, both Mr. Koizumi and Dr. Buckius offered encouraging words for early career engineers interested in pursuing research as a career.  Both speakers expressed optimism for future funding levels of engineering-related R&D, and sustained national recognition of its importance.

Unfortunately, the increases proposed for these federal agencies were not met.  In late December 2007, Congress and the Administration could not agree on the overall budget spending levels for FY 2008, and were forced to pass an omnibus spending measure that fell well short of the increases for R&D that were originally proposed.  During that time, ASME President Sam Y. Zamrik, Ph.D. released a statement expressing concern that the research agencies "(would) not see the promised increases that would have set in motion a sustained commitment to research and development."  Zamrik also stated that "This development is very disappointing for ASME and our members that supported the competitiveness and innovation agenda of the President and Congress." 

While the outlook for FY 2009 is still questionable, both the President and Congress have reiterated their support for increased R&D funding for the coming year.  The President requested significant increases for federal R&D funding in his FY 2009 request, while Congress recently passed a joint budget resolution that reflects similar priorities. 

For more information about the current status of FY 2009 appropriations, please visit http://www.engineeringpolicy.org, which is maintained by the ASME Government Relations team as a service to the engineering community.