$7.059 Billion for NSF?

Last week, Chairman Bart Gordon of the Committee on Science and Technology submitted his committee’s “Views and Estimates” to the House Budget Committee. Each committee in both chambers submits a "Views and Estimates" document to their chamber’s Budget Committee to provide suggestions for the Congressional Budget Resolution. Within the House science committee’s version of this, the majority calls for “$205 million be added to the President’s request for NSF, thereby providing NSF with total funding of $7.059 billion for FY2009.”

This proposed $205 million increase would go directly to fully funding both the Noyce Scholarships and the Math and Science Partnerships (MSP), increasing the budget at NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate to $995 million. The minority view in the Views and Estimates takes a supportive, though less specific stance, stating that:

“Within the Education and Human Resources account, we agree with the majority that the Robert Noyce Scholarship program, which we expanded in COMPETES, and the Math and Science Partnership program are not adequately funded in the FY09 request. However, we maintain that many of the FY09 authorized amounts remain too high and encourage the Budget Committee to consider setting increased funding levels for these programs to meet the goals in COMPETES, but in a fiscally responsible manner.”

A similar view by both parties was expressed in a hearing held last week by the House Research and Science Education Subcommittee, during which members from both parties stated their concerns with the funding levels for those same two education programs at NSF (the Noyce Scholarships and MSP). In a similar vein, Rep. Holt and others called for the America COMPETES Act to be fully funded at a hearing a few weeks ago. The following is a longer excerpt from the majority’s portion of the science committee’s Views and Estimates:

“The Committee encourages the Budget Committee to use as guidelines the funding levels included in two major authorizing bills signed into law last year – the America COMPETES Act (P.L. 110-69) and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-140). . . . However, the Administration’s budget ignores or neglects several core areas of COMPETES, including math and science education activities at NSF, manufacturing and technology stimulus programs at NIST, and important energy programs including ARPA-E. The Committee asks the Budget Committee to reject these cuts proposed by the Administration and include funding for these important COMPETES programs. . . . The Committee recommends that the NSF Education and Human Resources Directorate receive $995 million for FY2009, which is the authorized level and is $205 million above the request. The additional funding would be used to fully fund the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, which will provide scholarships for STEM majors who take tailored courses needed to become certified as teachers and agree to teach for two years for each year of scholarship support, and to fully fund the Math and Science Partnerships. In addition, the increase will support COMPETES initiatives to increase the number of undergraduate degrees in STEM fields and the number of graduate STEM degrees in emerging, interdisciplinary fields that are important for innovation and economic development. The Committee recommends that this $205 million be added to the President’s request for NSF, thereby providing NSF with total funding of $7.059 billion for FY2009.”

A PDF of the full 52-page document is available here.