In our continuing series following the Biden Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget request, we close out with a roundup of an assortment of Federal research agencies. These include the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NASA.

First, let’s look at NASA. Under the President’s plan, the space agency would receive a 7.1 percent increase, going from $25.4 billion in FY23 to $27.2 billion in FY24. NASA Science, which handles the research funding at the agency, would get almost as good of an increase: 5.9 percent, going from $7.80 billion in FY23 to $8.26 billion in FY24.

The next agency, NIST, has some nuance. The top line for the agency would see flat funding, remaining at $1.63 billion, just as it received for FY23 (in fact, it would be a very small increase of $5 million). The institutes’ Science and Technical Research and Services (STRS) account, where the majority of the agency’s research is housed, would see a relatively modest increase of 4.4 percent; going from $953 million in FY23 to $995 million in FY24.

Finally, we come to the National Institutes of Health, which also requires some discernment. Under the President’s plan, the agency would go from $47.50 billion in FY23 to $48.60 billion in FY24, an increase of $1.1 billion or 2.3 percent. The issue arises when one looks at what is getting the majority of the agency’s suggested increase: ARPA-H, or Advanced Research Project Agency, Health. Established in the 2022 Omnibus, the advanced research program would go from $1.50 billion in FY23 to $2.50 billion for FY24, an increase of 67 percent.

What’s going on here? With regard to NIST, the devil is in the details. NIST has received a lot of special budgetary attention from Congress the last few years, with a large amount of Congressionally directed spending (which is another way of saying earmarks). The Administration is zeroing out that spending in their FY24 request and distributing the money to Administration and agency priorities. Given the amount of Congressional directed funding comes to almost $400 million total for the agency in last year’s budget, the vast majority coming from the construction account, that’s why the requested budget is so flat this year.

With regard to NIH, it is a matter of priorities. ARPA-H is a major priority for the Biden Administration, and they are making sure it gets special attention at NIH. Unfortunately, that means the rest of NIH is getting something between flat funding to cuts. Given the level of support that health research gets from its champions in Congress, it’s very unlikely that the Administration’s plans will be passed into law as is. But this isn’t a good place for NIH’s budget to start this process at.

As with the other research accounts we’ve profiled, it’s worth tempering any expectations, positive or negative, as it is unlikely that these budget plans will pass Congress as proposed. Given the split Congress (ie: the Republican controlled House and the Democratic controlled Senate) any final budget for FY24 will be a long time coming, if it arrives at all. In fact, with House Republicans putting out their proposed debit limit bill, which calls for cutting most discretionary budget accounts back to FY22 levels, it makes any agreed to final federal budget that much further off.

An analysis of the House Republican’s proposed debit limit bill, and how it could impact research funding, will be the subject of a future Policy Blog post.

Next steps in the FY24 budget process are for each chamber of Congress to come up with their individual funding plans. That process will begin soon and should get into full swing by next month, with the House Appropriations Committee leading the way. We’ll have updates as those bills become public; keep checking back for more information.