Today was a massive win for science! Science Magazine just released an article stating that Trump and Congress just approved the largest research spending in decades. This is a far cry from Trump’s original budget plan (also covered by the Science Magazine about a year ago) that threatened deep cuts in the research institutes, particularly the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy.
Obviously, our efforts to protest against his original budget plan worked to some degree, as lawmakers in Congress finally heard us and pushed forward a package that is surely to support research to come. However, a closer look reveals that our work is not yet finished. Here’s the breakdown:
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $37 billion (8.3% increase)
- Alzheimer’s disease research – $1.8 billion
- Clinical and translational science funding – $543 million
- National Science Foundation (NSF) – $7.8 billion (3.9% increase)
- Research account – $6.3 billion
- Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE) – $6.26 billion (15% increase)
- Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy – $353 million
- NASA – $20.7 billion (5.1 % increase)
- NASA Science Programs (NASASP) – $6.2 billion
- Planetary science program – $2.2 billion
- Earth Science Programs – no change
- NASA Science Programs (NASASP) – $6.2 billion
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – $5.9 billion (4.1% increase)
- Climate Research – no change
- National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) – $1.2 billion (25.9% increase)
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – $1.1 billion (6.1% increase)
- Climate science centers – no change
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – $1.2 billion (2.8% increase)
- Environmental Projection Agency (EPA) – no change
Here’s a plot showing the differences between the approved plan and last year’s budget plan for easy reading:
It’s pretty clear to see that many major scientific agencies saw large increases in their funding, but note that the EPA received no funding at all. That being said, no funding is better than less funding. Still, the lack of increase for the EPA funding only adds on to the absence of monetary support for the USGS Climate Centers, NOAA Climate Research, and NASA’s earth science programs.
Either the president remains in denial of climate change or he’s advancing a certain political agenda in fear of losing public support. Regardless of the reason, this is a major step forward, but we still have work to do. Let’s roll up the sleeves.
Sources:
Our Reliance on Science 