BUDGET BATTLE CONTINUES: Final appropriations may depend on extent of across-the-board reductions

SENATORS AND REPRESENTAtives are hurrying to finish details of the fiscal 2003 federal budget this week even as President George W. Bush proposes his plans for fiscal 2004. Congress is not expected to approve the 2003 budget until the end of this month. Funding for science and technology programs in the omnibus appropriations bill (H.J. Res. 2) is better than many expected, but final outcomes depend on what the conferees do. The Senate had given research some good funding increases, but effectively removed them by trying to reconcile last-minute spending increases with a proposed 2.9% across-the-board spending cut that would take away most R&D gains. Most increases in R&D passed by the Senate would go to the Defense Department and to the National Institutes of Health. Military basic and applied research would get a $11.7 billion increase, to $ 11.7 billion, and NIH would complete its five-year double package would get a 1.5% rise to ...