House Decimates R&D, Lane Says

Appropriation bills approved by the U.S. House of Representatives have “decimated the President’s R&D budget,” according to Neal Lane, the President’s Science Advisor and director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dr. Lane issued a scathing statement earlier this week that condemned the House R&D budget appropriations, which include, according to the statement, the following:

• reducing expenditures for the Information Technology Initiative by 70 percent
• cutting research programs at NASA by $1 billion, NSF by $275 million, and DOE by $116 million
• eliminating the Advanced Technology Program and cutting an additional $60 million from NIST
• cutting technology transfer programs at the national labs by 73 percent
• earmarking nearly $1 billion of the R&D budget for projects outside the merit review process

The statement says,”The hopes that such cuts to R&D can be overcome in post-recess negotiations dim in the face of the bloated GOP tax cut.”

Dr. Lane also issued a call to arms in the statement, saying,“I am confident that this situation can be turned around if America’s research community makes its strong voice heard in these days ahead; otherwise if such cuts are allowed to stand, we will all be leading lesser lives in a lesser land.”

The statement can be viewed in its entirety at the website for the Office of Science & Technology Policy at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/998_6.html.