The Senate Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations subcommittee and the Senate Energy and Water Development appropriations subcommittee marked up their appropriations bills and, as with the House versions, it appears the science agencies did very well. We don’t yet have all the details, but here are the early numbers:
NSF received a total appropriation of $6.6 billion from the subcommittee — about $200 million more than the President’s request, $100 million more than the House subcommittee allocation, and about $700 million more than the agency received in FY 07.
NIST received $712 million, $71 million more than the President’s request and $33 million more than FY07 but $66 million less than the House subcommittee allocation. We don’t know how much of that increase goes to the NIST core research budget, however.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science received $4.497 billion, almost $100 million above the President’s request and $700 million over FY07 but $17 million less than the House allocation.
All the usual caveats about appropriations bills apply here — we don’t have the details, no funding is certain until the bill becomes law with the President’s signature, these numbers can change dramatically if the process melts down over an earmark dispute or a veto threat, etc — but it’s again a very positive sign that both the House and the Senate appear committed to the increases called for in both the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative and the Democratic Innovation Agenda. We’ll keep you posted as the bills move forward.