federal budget

Enacted FY14 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.

Enacted FY14 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.

Enacted FY14 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.

Enacted FY14 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.

Enacted FY14 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.

While President Obama’s FY15 budget request is unlikely to find much support in Congress this year, the document has traditionally served as a useful guide to the administration’s priorities and to federal programs related to research, regional economic development, manufacturing, entrepreneurship and STEM education.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has conducted a Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development for fiscal years 2010-12. In total, federal R&D obligations were $144.7 billion in FY10. The top state recipients, in absolute terms, are California ($28.3 billion, representing 19.6% of the national total), Maryland ($17.0 billion, 11.8%), Virginia ($9.3 billion, 6.4%), Massachusetts ($8.9 billion, 6.1%), and Texas ($7.3 billion, 5.0%). The states and territories receiving the least are Delaware, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and finally Wyoming.

The current federal FY13 budget under sequestration will reduce the funding level for state aid by $5.1 billion from FY12, according to the study by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank focusing on low- and middle-income labor and economic policy. When including sequestration and funding levels under the current continuing resolution, 25 states and the District of Columbia will have federal grant funding reduced in FY13 compared to FY12, with the five highest states being Louisiana, Indiana, Maine, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Each year, SSTI provides Digest readers with a comprehensive review of technology-based economic development spending in the the president's federal budget request. The year's edition includes proposed FY14 spending on R&D, STEM education, manufacturing, broadband, small business support, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation workforce initiatives and more.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a breakdown of federal research and development (R&D) funding by research area. The report includes FY10 spending, FY11 preliminary spending levels and proposed FY12 levels. In 2010, national defense led the list of research priorities, receiving 59 percent of all U.S. R&D spending. Health research captured another 21.5 percent of spending. NSF provides tables for each research area that separate spending by federal agency and program. Download the data at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf12322/.