ISTOCK, OPENMINDEDEThe budget deal signed into US law on Friday (February 9) increases the caps on nondefense discretionary spending—a category that includes science agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and NASA—by $143 billion (12.9 percent) in fiscal year 2018, and by $153 billion in 2019, reports the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). But how those funds will be allocated will not be determined until Congress passes an appropriations bill.
AAAS’s Matt Hourihan tells Science News that “Generally, research and development funding tends to track the discretionary budget pretty closely . . . most likely we're looking at a larger increase this year, and then a far more moderate increase next year. Within that context, agencies will fare better or worse based on their current popularity.”
In response to the news about the deal, which ended a very brief government shutdown, the American Chemical Society (ACS) released a statement that reads in part, “ACS is encouraged by the bipartisan budget deal that includes an increase in domestic spending over two years. ACS encourages Congress to invest heavily in scientific research and education, which are key elements of the U.S. innovation pipeline that drives job creation ...
