An agreement struck over the weekend between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avoid a U.S. government default has reassured jittery financial markets. But its formula for holding federal spending flat for 2 years means science agencies will have to compete against all other civilian programs to win any increases from Congress.
The 27 May agreement would allow the U.S. government to continue borrowing money for its operations after 5 June, when it is expected to reach the current debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion. The deal strikes a compromise between Republican demands for deep, sustained cuts in federal spending in return for raising the ceiling and Biden’s effort to protect federal programs.
“It’s in the hands of the appropriators now,” adds Jennifer Zeitzer of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, referring to the members sitting on the committee that writes spending bills for every federal agency. “Flat funding makes it more challenging, but it’s too soon to say how much more.”
Science agencies with the most ambitious plans have the most to lose from the proposed 2-year spending restrictions. For example, Biden’s 2024 budget request to Congress, submitted in March, includes a 19% increase, to $11.3 billion, for the National Science Foundation . Biomedical researchers are also worried about the impact of a flat budget. They were hoping to do much better than the 2% increase Biden requested in 2024 for the National Institutes of Health , half of which would go to the National Cancer Institute.
Several of NASA’s science missions also need a big increase to stay on course. So a tight budget could trigger a political fight pitting the Biden administration’s priorities on climate missions against congressional support for planetary exploration. A flat NASA science budget could result in delays to one or more missions.
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Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »