Federal Funds Rise for Basic Research, Student Aid

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December 09, 1999

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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

By Alvin Powell
Gazette Staff

The federal government is boosting spending on basic research and student financial aid this year despite pressure to limit spending increases.

Several research funding agencies and student financial aid programs are receiving budget increases. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) takes a major step forward with a 15 percent increase totaling approximately $2.3 billion. That spells good news for life sciences and medical research typically funded through NIH grants.

The increase builds on a 14 percent hike last year and moves toward the goal of some lawmakers of doubling the NIH budget over five years.

"We have always felt there’s been a bipartisan acknowledgement of the importance of research. It seems in the last couple of years there’s a new sense of urgency," said Kevin Casey, Harvard’s senior director of federal and state relations. "I think there’s a sense of things right over the horizon that we’re on the verge of seeing, particularly in the life sciences."

The budget also provides increases for the departments of Defense and Energy, which fund important programs in engineering, computer, and other physical sciences. Financial aid programs, including graduate education programs, Pell grants, Perkins Loans, Work-Study, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants all received more money this year.

"The news concerning federal research funding is very encouraging, and all of us are appreciative of the growing awareness among political leaders of the linkages between research and education and their dual importance to the health and well-being of the nation," said Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine.

The good news for higher education comes despite a federal budget constrained by provisions of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. The act was designed to balance the federal budget by 2000. Although that objective was achieved four years early, lawmakers are trying to adhere to the act’s limits to avoid a spending free-for-all. The overall budget increase in this fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1, 1999, through Sept. 30, 2000, is about 5 percent.

The increased aid for higher education didn’t come easily, however. Universities around the country worked to convince senators and representatives that higher education’s priorities ought to be funded.

Among other lobbying efforts, Rudenstine led a delegation of university presidents, business leaders, and political leaders to Washington, D.C., in September to emphasize the importance of basic scientific research to the nation’s economy.

"We’d have to rate this year very successful, particularly if you look at how higher education did compared with other programs in the domestic discretionary budget," Casey said. "I don’t know of many sectors in the federal budget that have uniformly positive results in this kind of climate."

Besides the NIH’s 15 percent budget increase, other agencies also benefited from the emphasis on research funding. After a near-freeze in funding between 1996 and 1998, the Defense Department’s (DOD’s) basic research budget, which mainly funds university-based research, is up 5.8 percent, to $1.2 billion. The DOD’s budget for applied research, of which some goes to universities, is up 6.7 percent, to $3.4 billion.

Similarly, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) funding for research in high energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy all received increases of between 1.6 percent and 8.8 percent. Several DOE research programs were cut, however, including energy sciences, energy supply research, biological and environmental research, and nondefense environmental management.

NASA emerged from the budget deliberations with a 0.1 percent budget cut – a relative victory considering that President Clinton recommended the agency get $75 million less and the passage of House legislation that would have lopped nearly $1 billion from the NASA budget.

On the student aid front, the maximum Pell Grant was increased to $3,300, $50 above the level sought by President Clinton. Work-study funding was increased by $64 million, or 7.4 percent, to $934 million. Overall support for graduate education programs was increased 64 percent, to $51 million. And Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants were increased by $12 million, or 2 percent, to $631 million.

The session also saw passage of legislation in other important areas. Legislation was passed that will extend to private colleges and universities the same protections against punitive damages in Y2K-related lawsuits already given public colleges and universities.

With the effects of the Y2K computer bug uncertain, the protection is an important safeguard, Casey said.

On another front, important protections of confidential medical records and corporate proprietary information were included in the federal regulations promulgated in November to enforce the Shelby Amendment.

Passed in 1998, the Shelby Amendment makes data produced as a result of federal research grants subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act. Researchers have protested that the provisions would hurt their ability to recruit experimental subjects (whose medical records could then be deemed public information) or corporate partners (whose corporate records could also be found to be in the public domain). These concerns were taken into account in regulations drafted to enforce the amendment, Casey said.

"We were trying to provide more certainty, protect patient privacy and medical records, and minimize the disincentive of research subjects to participate," Casey said.

Though this year’s budget is favorable for higher education, Casey said universities and other advocates have to continue making the case for research and student aid dollars to avoid any potential backslide. With this year’s budget exceeding Balanced Budget Act guidelines by $30 billion to $40 billion, deliberations on next year’s budget may start with discussions of how spending could be cut to reach Balanced Budget Act targets.