SSTI Digest

The Administration's FY 2007 budget request of $65.6 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT) is $135 million higher than the FY 2006 appropriation. DOT's request would be distributed across the department's five key strategic objectives:

• Improve safety (24.3 percent);
• Increase mobility (67.1 percent);
• Increase global transportation connectivity (0.3 percent);
• Protect the environment (6.4 percent); and,
• Support national security (0.7 percent).

The balance of 1.1 percent would go toward organizational excellence, according to the DOT Budget in Brief.

There are only four programs in the Treasury Department that SSTI monitors for the tech-based economic development community. Similar to the Administration's FY 2006 budget request, all are slated for termination or phase out in FY 2007. Congress restored 98.9 percent of the funding in its final FY06 appropriations.



The programs slated for termination include the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Programs (appropriated $30.9 million in FY06), the Bank Enterprise Award ($13.4 million), and the CDFI Native Initiatives ($5.8 million).

The Administration's FY 2007 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget request is $7.3 billion, a 4.07 percent decrease from the FY 2006 appropriation*. The agency's science and technology programs would receive $788.3 million, a 7.86 percent increase over the FY06 appropriation. However, funding for research would decrease by $19.9 million.



More than $100 million is requested in the FY07 budget to support EPA's new priorities in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Selected highlights include:

• $50 million for the Diesel Emissions Reduction program to support cleaner fuels and diesel retrofits, rebuilds and replacements; and,
• $11 million for development and implementation of the renewable fuel standard leading to increased market share of ethanol and renewable fuels.

The FY 2007 budget request for NASA totals $16.8 billion, a 1 percent increase from FY 2006. Included in the FY07 request is $5.3 billion for the Science Mission Directorate, an increase of 1.5 percent from FY06. However, funding for Aeronautics Research decreased 18.1 percent, totaling $724.4 million for FY07.

The Administration’s FY07 NSF budget request of $6.02 billion reflects an increase of $439 million or 7.9 percent from the FY06 appropriation.



Funding for fixed assets of the nation's research enterprise, such as instrumentation, research facilities, infrastructure and federally-funded R&D centers, receive $1.685 billion in the FY07 request, a 13.2 percent increase above the FY06 plan.



Monies available for grants in fundamental science and engineering, for the centers programs and for capability enhancement are proposed to increase by 6.1 percent to $2.915 billion in FY07.



FY07 budget requests for selected initiatives crossing several NSF directorates include:

There are three federally established regional commissions and authorities that are dedicated to improving the economic opportunities within specific geographic regions. The Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority are dependent on annual appropriations. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the oldest and largest of the three, generates its budget primarily through power generation revenues. TVA still requires the government to approve or set its annual spending level.

The Administration requests $624 million in FY 2007 funding for the Small Business Administration (SBA). Comparison with FY 2006 is challenging due to the disaster loans added to the SBA's authority in FY06. Tech Daily quotes an SBA official as saying the FY07 request "basically would be a straight-line" comparison to the FY 2006 appropriation.



Funding levels for selected activities identified as "core programs" in the agency's press release include:

With state revenues posting a surplus, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush used his 2006-07 budget proposal to make his largest request yet to support efforts to diversify the state's economy through technology-based economic development (TBED). In total, the budget provides $630 million for several new research-focused initiatives, business recruitment funds, and other economic development programs.

The governor's funding recommendations focus on growing science and technology-based jobs and industries, investments in the space industry, and developing funds to support innovative start-up companies, and include:

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is set to release his fiscal year 2006-07 budget request later this week, which is expected to significantly redesign the state's investment in biotechnology and life science research, according to materials released by the governor's office.

Since passage of Act 77 in 2001, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PDEH) has used 19 percent of the state's tobacco settlement funds to fund biomedical-related research projects through the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) program. The program provides formula and competitive grants to universities to support research priorities set by PDEH.

Not all of the pieces critical to building an innovation-based economy have to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, as might be suggested in the Florida and Pennsylvania stories above. Gov. Matt Blunt's Feb. 2 call for the state to provide $2 million for a new Missouri Life Science Incubator - designed to help researchers move their science from the laboratory to commercial businesses - provides a case in point. The proposed facility would be located on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus.

The $2 million investment is a new part of the governor's $450 million Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, which already includes proposals for two other life sciences facilities at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The first is a new $150 million Health Science Center designed to grow the university’s research base and second is a $15 million plant science research center that will seek to develop and enhance plant-based products.

On Jan. 26, New York Gov. George Pataki and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno announced legislation to create a $200 million Biotechnology and Biomedicine Research Initiative through the New York State Charitable Assets Foundation.

The new program would provide challenge grants that are expected to generate an additional $600 million in federal, nonprofit and private sector matching funds to expand biotechnology and biomedicine R&D at public and private academic and nonprofit biomedical research institutions throughout the state.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced the 13 recipients for one of the most anticipated new federal workforce programs to be launched in several years. The $195 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) program attempts to integrate human capital issues of talent and skill development into larger technology-based economic development strategies. While that in itself is seemingly unique for a federal initiative, WIRED also requires regional cooperation that crosses political jurisdictions and traditional organizational missions.

Each of the 13 regions will receive approximately $15 million in funding over three years to support strategy development, regional network formulation and plan implementation: