Bush Budget Would Reduce Number Of New NIH Grants

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The president's request for 1993 specifies more science support overall but dims hopes for some individual researchers

WASHINGTON--On the surface, the 1993 budget that President Bush submitted to Congress January 29 should look very familiar to researchers: A lot more for the National Science Foundation, a little more for the National Institutes of Health, and large increases to pay for the continuing construction of the superconducting supercollider and the space station are among its most prominent features. Indeed, in a year when domestic discretionary spending--which includes practically all civilian research--is required to remain constant, the president's proposed 8 percent increase in basic research, to $14.3 billion, once again appears quite generous.

But the $1.5 trillion budget request that Congress will soon dissect and rearrange contains some unpleasant surprises for the scientific community. Many agencywide increases are accompanied by cuts in programs that many scientists...