Last year, U.S. lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill aimed at keeping the U.S. competitive with countries like China by increasing funding for science and innovation. But there are growing concerns that the U.S. Congress will not fulfill its promise.
Funding allocated to several major U.S. science agencies that were targeted for budget increases will likely fall more than $7 billion below the bill’s goal in 2024, the report said. And overall funding for these institutions will continue to hover at 25-year lows (see “US Science Downturn”).
“We’re leaving scientific opportunities behind,” says Matt Houlihan, who led the analysis for the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. “If I drop this ball, someone else will be happy to pick it up.”
CHIPS and Science Funding Update (Federation of American Scientists, October 2023)
This very concern was the driving force that brought members of Congress together to pass the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The bill promises one of the largest increases in U.S. science funding ever, totaling about $280 billion over five years. Much of the spending mandated by the bill was focused on semiconductor research and manufacturing, an area that has been dominated by other countries, particularly China. Lawmakers also authorized investments in other science and innovation programs, but these were not mandated and required Congressional approval during the annual spending process.
As the United States has become more politically polarized over the past several decades, this process has become increasingly contentious. Disputes over overall spending levels and funding for various social programs led to repeated delays in annual budget preparation and at times led to a government shutdown. This year is a classic example. Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, blocked a bill that would have allowed the government to raise the federal debt ceiling to pay the bills until they struck a deal with Democrats in May. Limit spending. And last month, a handful of far-right Republicans called for a government shutdown as they pushed for further spending cuts.
There is only a little left
The CHIPS Act authorized three agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to receive a total of $26.8 billion in fiscal year 2024. These agencies work together to fund much of the basic and applied research in the core areas covered by this law, including advanced computing, manufacturing, climate change, and national security. But as it stands, with spending bills pending in Congress, those agencies are likely to receive just over $19 billion next year, a shortfall of about 28%, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
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This decline would further exacerbate the existing downward trend in funding to these institutions. Measured as a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), overall funding for the NSF, Department of Energy, Department of Science, and NIST has continued to decline for more than 20 years, excluding one-time cash injections from the economy and finances. . 2009 Economic Stimulus Bill.
Jill Pentimonti, director of research advancement at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and director of the Science Coalition, said this trend is alarming and emphasizes the need for Congress to deliver on the promises of CHIPS and the Science Act. It has said. It represents more than 50 U.S. research universities. Failure to adequately fund these and other scientific institutions “could weaken our position as a world leader in innovation and undermine economic growth,” she says.
That doesn’t mean the United States isn’t investing in science. The country continues to lead the world in absolute funding for research and development, taking into account both public and private investment. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, we spend more than $700 billion each year, and that number is rising. (AAAS), located in Washington, DC. However, although private investment has increased, total government investment has declined from about 2% of GDP during the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960s to about 0.7% of GDP today, government sources say. Chief Officer Joan Carney said. At AAAS.
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One reason science advocates are concerned about reductions in public funding is the fact that these cuts tend to disproportionately impact basic research. The private sector typically ignores this area because the rewards are difficult to predict (although they may be greater than those from applied science).
Looking further afield, Carney said many other countries are increasing public funding for research and investing in scientific and technical talent. She says that benefits science as a global enterprise, but also creates competition for talent and scientific advancement in many fields. She added that ambitious laws like CHIPS and the Science Act may not be enough if the United States wants to remain a leader.
“Our innovation system cannot grow through policy language alone,” Carney said. Congress must implement “genuine sustainable federal investments that reflect those very same goals and aspirations.”
