Balancing the science budget
Malakoff, D.
Science 287(5455): 952-955
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 10691566 Document Number: 520870
President Clinton's final budget proposes a huge increase for basic research and deals with a growing imbalance between biomedical research and the rest of science. Various factors, from a thriving economy to new faces at the White House and in Congress, appear to have produced the kind of RandD budget request some scientists dreamed of since the former Arkansas governor entered the Oval Office in 1993. The increase to basic science is led by a 17 percent raise for the $3.9 billion National Science Foundation, as well as a 4.5 percent raise for the $17.9 billion National Institutes of Health and a 3 percent raise, the first in years, for the $13.7 billion NASA. The previous seven budget proposals requested huge increases for a range of RandD programs, but many in the science community felt those budgets too often emphasized trendy topics over time-tested investments in basic science.