piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (02/12/86)
Posted: Sat Feb 8, 1986 1:36 PM EST Msg: AGIG-2177-4674
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
CC: RPark
Subj: What's New, 7 February 1986 Washington, D.C.
ONCE AGAIN, R&D IS UP IN PRESIDENT REAGAN'S 1987 BUDGET--
though, as customary in the past five years, the Defense
Department would get the lion's share. What's more, basic
research at universities and the Department of Energy's
multiprogram national labs are due to receive respectable
increases, even in a year of severe budget restraints.
In FY 87, total federal obligations for R&D, which
includes spending for new facilities and equipment, are
estimated at $63 billion--an increase of almost $9 billion or
a generous 16% more than the estimated level of $54 billion
in the current year that began last October and takes into
account the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act
of 1985 (popularly known as Gramm-Rudman-Hollings). The R&D
budget has a familiar look. The Defense Department's portion
would come to $41.8 billion for 1987, which is 25% higher
than this year, and if DOE's weapons program is added,
military R&D would go to $44.4. The largest single program
in military R&D is the Strategic Defense Initiative (commonly
called "Star Wars"). It would get $4.8 billion in DOD and
almost $300 million more in DOE, where spending would be
entirely in national labs. Virtually every element in the
SDI program would be doubled. Research in directed energy
weapons will grow faster than kinetic energy weapons, but
much greater emphasis would be given to reliable, survivable,
cost-effective battle-management concepts, mainly computer
software, recommended in the recent Eastport Panel Report.
The National Science Foundation would receive
$1.48 billion in 1987, an increase of $174 million or 13%
above the 1986 figure of $1.35 billion, which takes Gramm-
Rudman-Hollings reductions into account. Physics would get
the smallest rise (only 6.7% above 1986) and materials
science only a trifle more (7%), while math (with 15.7%) and
chemistry (12.5%) would gain significantly. Increases would
also go to NSF's Engineering Research Centers. It is
earmarked for $12 million more, to a total of $35 million in
1987, which would enable NSF to increase the number of
engineering centers at universities from the current 6 to as
many as 15 in 1987.
The Department of Energy's R&D budget would decrease to
$2.6 billion from $2.9 billion this year, if military work is
excluded. The magnetic fusion program would be cut by another
$32.5 million to $333 million from its 1986 level. On a
happier note DoE proposes to construct two new projects: The
Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (for political
and technical evaluations, see Physics Today, February 1986)
at Newport News, Virginia, and the 1-2 GeV synchrotron light
source at Lawrence Berkeley's Center for Advanced Materials.
Robert L. Park (202) 429-1946
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 2/7/86