Big increases for NSF, NASA, the genome project, and the supercollider must vie with the needs of domestic programs |
Why, in a time of fiscal austerity, is more money for other domestic programs a blessing for researchers? Because in the arcane world of the federal budget, the whole is often less important than the individual parts.
Here's how it works. Before any part of the administration's $1.2 trillion federal budget can be enacted, Congress must first divide it into 13 pieces. And each spring the chairmen of 13 corresponding appropriations subcommittees compete vigorously, behind closed doors, for the largest possible allocation for their panel. That allocation must ...
