Bush Budget Would Reduce Number Of New NIH Grants

Sidebar: Wrong Number, Please Try Again 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 hold dear, suggesting a showdown later in the year. One notable example is the proposed $9.37 billion budget for NIH. While 5 percent higher than in 1992, the Bush budget will fund 200 fewer new and competing research project grants than in the current fiscal year. That level--5,797-- not only will increase the already fierce competition for NIH grants among individual investigators, but also flouts the congressional instruction to NIH that it fund at least 6,000 such grants annually. NIH director Bernadine Healy has warned scientists repeatedly not to use a particular number as a yardstick of the health of NIH's budget. "If R01s [NIH's label for individual investigator-initiated grants] are our top priority, then we can downsize right now," Healy said at a press briefing in late January on the effort to develop a strategic plan for the institute. "But in fact, R01s are not the only thing we do." But many scientists take issue with her assessment of agency priorities. The 40,000-member Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), for example, has recommended that NIH fund 6,233 new and competing grants in fiscal 1993 as the minimum number needed to sustain progress in biomedicine. And last month the 150-member Ad Hoc Coalition for Biomedical Research put the final touches on a recommendation to Congress that NIH receive $10.5 billion, distributed in a way that would boost funds for research project grants, training, and other activities. "I don't like to become fixated on a number," says Robert Cousins, president of FASEB and a professor of nutrition at the University of Florida. "But it provides some continuity for a field that needs to know what lies ahead. We understand that there's a recession, and that there isn't enough money to go around. But [individual investigator grants] have been the cornerstone of biomedical research in this country." In another area, science education, the new Bush budget all but freezes money for graduate training. Although science and math education is one of the president's five major research initiatives in the new budget--along with high- performance computing, advanced materials, global climate change, and biotechnology--the budget proposes a 2 percent cut, from $768 million to $750 million, in the money available for traineeships, fellowships, and other support. NSF, for example, has requested an 18 percent increase in its overall budget, to $3.03 billion. But education is slated for only a 3 percent rise, from $465 million to $479 million, a sharp decline from recent budgets. The NSF budget for science education doubled from 1990 to 1992. One way NSF officials are stretching their education dollars is by carrying over into 1993 some $23 million that Congress appropriated last fall for a new graduate traineeship program. Luther Williams, head of the education and human resources directorate, says the shift is necessary because there isn't time to launch the program before the current fiscal year ends on September 30. But without that item, NSF's request in this area is identical--$50 million--to what it sought in 1992. At NIH, proposed funding for both individual graduate fellowships and institutional traineeships are frozen at 1992 levels of $309 million. The Department of Energy also wants to cut its graduate training funds--by 25 percent, to just under $20 million. Some policy analysts predict that Congress will ignore the president's request on science education and move quickly to increase spending in this area. Speaking about the NSF request, National Science Teachers Association president Bill Aldridge says, "Sometimes I don't even know why he [Bush] bothers to submit a budget. Congress will never go for that small an increase." Yet an aide to the House science committee that authorizes NSF programs says that committee members are inclined to fund education at a less accelerated rate after the rapid growth of the past five years. "We are not particularly upset by [the small increase]," says the aide, who requests anonymity. "We had already intended to look closely into how they are spending their money, and I think committee members will see this request as giving [NSF] some breathing space to carry out its own assessment." In another example of slow growth, the Bush budget claims little for science from any "peace dividend" that may result from decreasing the Pentagon budget. Despite strong words from administration officials on the importance of civilian technology, and growing pressure from Congress to strengthen U.S. technological prowess, the balance between military research and civilian research in the president's budget is practically unchanged from last year. Of the $73.3 billion proposed for R&D programs, some $43.2 billion--59 percent--is intended for defense-related activities. That percentage, although down from a peak of 66 percent during the Reagan presidency, is still billions of dollars short of the 50-50 split during the Carter administration. One reason that the imbalance is so hard to change is the big price tag on such projects as the Strategic Defense Initiative. Its proposed $1.3 billion increase, to $5.4 billion, dwarfs the overall boosts of $454 million sought for NSF and $442 million for NIH. (Veteran budget watchers say that 1993 marks the first time the requested budget increase for NSF tops that for NIH, whose budget is three times the size of the foundation's.) But there are philosophical reasons as well for the continued emphasis on defense research. Pres- idential science adviser Allan Bromley says that the current 3-to-2 ratio is out of step with the times. "Frankly, I would be happier if the defense numbers were larger," Bromley said at a news conference held the same day the budget was unveiled. "I think the Pentagon should be investing more in R&D than it does now." Bromley warned that a virtual cap on domestic discretionary spending, set in a 1990 agreement between the White House and Congress, will force this year's budget makers into a process whereby "every R&D increase must be matched with corresponding decreases in other areas of domestic spending." Other notable items in the proposed 1993 budget for science are: * The space station would receive $2.25 billion, an 11 percent increase over the 1992 level. The project, viewed by many scientific groups as expendable, is likely to face another vote in Congress, which overturned a House appropriations committee recommendation last year to cancel the $40 billion project. * The SSC program hopes to get $650 million, up from $484 million this year, to keep on its schedule of completing construction by the end of the decade. Observers expect that the recent Japanese decision to defer any contribution toward the $9 billion accelerator until a joint U.S.-Japan committee reviews the issue of Japanese participation will spur another heated battle within Congress to kill the project. * The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) is slated for $48 million in the second year of its five-year, $211 million construction schedule. It is one of several large instruments that are consuming much of the increase in NSF's budget. * High-performance computing would receive a 27 percent increase, to $803 million, for continued work on innovations and the development of a high-speed digital communications network. NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are to receive most of the funding for this initiative. * Advanced materials and processing would receive $1.8 billion, up 10 percent over this year, for efforts to synthesize and process new materials. The Energy and Defense departments, along with NSF and NASA, receive significant funding for this effort. * The human genome project would divide $175 million, a 7 percent increase over the 1992 level, between NIH and the Energy Department toward work on mapping the genome, characterizing disease-related genes, and improving databases. * Requested funding for an academic instrumentation program at NSF is $33 million, the same as the amount for a combined instrumentation and facilities program now run by NSF. * NASA would cancel the $700 million CRAF (Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby) exploration while seeking $210 million to fund its sister spacecraft, the Cassini mission to Saturn. NASA has decided to kill the Magellan spacecraft next year, several years before its intended life- span, to save $80 million.

Bush Budget Would Reduce Number Of New NIH Grants

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