The Department of Energy’s Office of Science would see significant increases under the FY 2008 House Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill marked up by the E&W Approps Subcommittee yesterday. Though we don’t yet have all the detail about increases in individual accounts, we do know that the Office of Science would see an overall increase to $4.516 billion in FY 2008, which is $120 million above the President’s request for FY 2008 and $719 million above the FY 2007 level, or an increase of 18.9 percent.
Presumably the increases in DOE Science will be spread reasonably equitably throughout the agency, which would mean the agency’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program should see an equally significant increase in FY 08. But we won’t see real detail until the full appropriations committee marks up the bill in June.
For now, it’s good to know that the appropriators appear prepared to continue their commitment to doubling the budgets of key federal science agencies, as spelled out in the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative and the Democratic Innovation Agenda. Next up should be the House version of the Commerce, Science, Justice appropriations, which will include funding for the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We’ll have all the details as we get ’em…