1. Federal R&D in FY 2017 Matt Hourihan October 3, 2016
For the ASU DARPA Young Faculty Awardees
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program

2. The Federal Budget is Kind Of a Big Deal
“Politics is who gets what, when, and how.” - Harold Lasswell
“Budgeting is about values, and it’s about choices.” – Rep. Rosa DeLauro
Every dollar in the budget has its claimants!
Negotiation between competing interests (and their proxies) in a decentralized system
Major impact for R&D and innovation: most basic research, and most university research, is federally funded

16. From Budget to Appropriations Committees
Budget Resolution limits  Approps Committees  Subcommittees [302(b) allocations]
These caps remain in place all the way to floor, but can be revised as needed
Twelve Appropriations Subcommittees
Nine subcommittees responsible for at least $1 billion of R&D
Approps led by “Cardinals”
Committee Chairs: Rep. Hal Rogers (KY), Sen. Thad Cochran (MS)
Ranking Members: Rep. Nita Lowey (NY), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Appropriators will often have their own priorities
“There are three parties: Democrats, Republicans, and appropriators”
“President proposes, Congress disposes”

17. Defense Bill Over $500 billion
House
Senate
Chair
Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ)
Thad Cochran (MS)
Ranking Member
Pete Visclosky (IN)
Dick Durbin (IL)
Over $500 billion
Tradeoffs: balancing force modernization, readiness, personnel costs, near-term versus long-term RDT&E (and medical research)
Offset Strategy
What to do about war funding?

19. Agency Highlights: NIH
$33.1 billion program level (+$825 million, +2.6%) OR
$31.3 billion program level (-$1 billion, -3.1%)
Of the $1.825 billion in mandatory spending:
$825 million for cancer research, BRAIN Initiative, Precision Medicine
Remaining $1 billion to keep all other ICs flat
17.5% success rate in FY17

20. Labor, HHS, Education >$150 billion
House
Senate
Chair
Tom Cole (OK)
Roy Blount (MO)
Ranking Member
Rosa DeLauro (CT)
Patty Murray (WA)
>$150 billion
Deep divisions – especially Obamacare
Usually one of the hardest to pass, thus usually one of the last out of the gate
Everybody likes NIH lately
Especially Alzheimer’s research
Cancer moonshot?
Success rates?

22. Commerce, Justice, Science
House
Senate
Chair
John Culberson (TX)
Richard Shelby (AL)
Ranking Member
Mike Honda (CA)
Barbara Mikulski (MD)
~$55 billion
Tradeoffs: Balancing Depts. of Justice and Commerce (including NOAA and NIST), NASA, NSF
Among science programs, NASA’s star is somewhat ascendant
NSF: Modest year all around
Social and geo science funding? Facilities?

23. Looking Ahead
Good approps progress but regular order broke down, because of course it did
CR through Dec. 9
Included Zika funding
And full-year MilCon
Next: omnibus (?) negotiations, to lead to legislation in late fall
March: Debt ceiling. Ugh.
FY 2018: Sequester-level spending returns, maybe

25. For more info…