Well as you've probably seen from the S&T budget document, DoD S&T is not what we were hoping for. Of the various budget activities (Army Basic, Army Applied, Navy Basic, etc.) all of them take a reduction from FY05 appropriated. Most of them take a reduction from the FY05 President's appropriated level. Overall basic research at DoD takes a 12% hit from FY05 app. and a 1% hit from the 05 request. Not a good trend.
Additionally the level of DoD spending dedicated to S&T dropped from 2.6% last year to 2.5% this year. In DoD's defense most of that can be accounted for by the fact that TOA increased by app. $20B while S&T stayed roughly flat. Basic accounts for 12.5% of S&T this year as opposed to 11.3% of last year's appropriations and 12.6 % of last year's request.
On the bright side, DoD is putting some significant dollars next to dealing with the S&T workforce issue. The Department has requested $10 M for a science and math workforce program. It will in all likelihood resemble significan't the SMART program initiated by Congress last year. Last year SMART was funded at $2.5 Million.
Funding statements, requests and other advocacy materials to come.
Posted by TomJones at February 7, 2005 01:50 PM | TrackBack