90 



(ib / SUPPLEMENT 3 



Interior 



2% 



Agriculture 



2% 

 Commerce-Justjce-State 

 2% 

 Others 

 1% 



FIGURE n.9 Appropriations subcommittee roles in funding R&D. 



NOTE: The $70 billion of federal R&D, as traditionally calculated, is allocated mainly by seven 

 appropriations subcommittees each in the House and Senate. The seven subcommittees that allocate 

 most R&D funding and the activities over which they have appropriation authority are (1) Agricul- 

 ture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies (most USDA R&D 

 programs: FDA); (2) Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies (NIST, NOAA); (3) 

 Energy and Water Development (most DOE R&D programs; civilian aspects of DOD, such as the Arm>' 

 Corps of Engineers); (4) Interior and Related Agencies (U.S. Geological Survey; DOE programs on 

 fossil fuel, coal, and conservation; and USDA Forest Service); (5) Labor, Health and Human -Services, 

 Education, and Related Agencies (NIH, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Education R&D 

 programs); (6) National Security (most DOD R&D programs); and (7) Veterans Affairs, Housing and 

 Urban Development, and Independent Agencies (Department of Veterans Affairs, EPA, NASA, NSF, 

 OSTP). Each of the remaining six subcommittees allocates less than 5 percent of its appropriations 

 authorit>' for R&D, most far less. 



SOURCE: Adapted from data provided by the R&D Budget and Policy Project, American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. 



went to R&D in fiscal year 1995 (the figures do not take into account recisions that 

 took effect in July 1995). The fraction of funds going to R&D is a rough measure of 

 the trade-off between R&D and other spending within subcommittees. The higher 

 the fraction of budget devoted to R&D, the harder it is to increase R&D without 

 impinging on other programs and the more tempting it is to cut R&D to fund other 

 popular programs. Funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 

 Environmental Protection Agency, and National Science Foundation, for example, 

 competes for dollars allocated to the same appropriations subcommittee that funds 

 veterans' benefits and federal housing programs. Similarly increases for the National 

 Institutes of Health can come only at the expense of programs for education, labor, 

 and health and human services. Given caps set by the budget process and projected 

 steep declines in federal discretionary spending, preserving R&D funding increas- 

 ingly conflicts with the desire to preserve such other programs. R&D intensiveness 

 varies considerably, as shown for the major R&D subcommittees in Figure 11.10. 



