As part of his fiscal year 2004 budget proposal, President Bush is seeking a 4.4 percent increase in the nation's research and development budget, for a record total of $122.3 billion.

Here is how the numbers stack up for programs that ASME follows closely.

Department of Defense: The DOD is due for the largest segment of the budget, $52.5 billion. After several years of significant increases, funding for the Science and Technology accounts—a small part of the Defense research budget, but the portion most closely watched by ASME—would decrease $935 million, or 8.3 percent from current levels, to a total of $10.3 billion. That proposal includes $1.3 billion for basic research (-7.7 percent), $3.8 billion for applied research (-14.4 percent), and $5.2 billion for advanced technology development (+3.7 percent).

Department of Energy: The major splash in this year's DOE budget request is the addition of the FreedomFuel hydrogen initiative, which the president announced in his State of the Union message, coupled with continuation of the FreedomCAR fuel cell vehicle program begun in fiscal 2003.

The budget for renewable energy technologies would be increased by approximately $22 million. Hydrogen research and development will rise $48 million, and the National Climate Change Technology Initiative, a new program, is requesting $15 million. Offsetting those gains, however, other renewable energy research programs would be decreased. For instance, solar research would decrease $7.3 million. Wind (-$2.4 million), geothermal (-$4.5 million), and biomass (-$11.5 million) research funding also would decline.

The fiscal year 2004 budget request for fossil energy represents an increase of approximately $10 million over the fiscal 2003 enacted level. The $519 million request includes a $7.3 million increase in coal and power systems, and a $4 million increase in natural gas technologies. The major decrease was for petroleum technologies, which would decline $29.3 million from the fiscal '03 enacted level, for a total request of $15 million. This decrease includes a $14.4 million cut in exploration and production R&D, re- flecting a change in mission toward enhanced oil recovery and carbon dioxide injection research.

Coal R&D would be funded at $367.5 million, a decrease of $45.7 million from the fiscal 2003 level, but an increase of $7.3 million from the fiscal 2003 request. The Clean Coal Power Initiative, the follow-on to the Clean Coal Technology Initiative, would take a $20 million hit for fiscal 2004, a cut unlikely to be sustained by Congress. Carbon sequestration research would increase substantially—$21 million above the fiscal 2003 level of $41 million.

The fiscal 2004 proposed budget for nuclear energy research is $387.5 million, $86.5 million above the fiscal 2003 level. The only major decrease in the nuclear energy budget is $13 million (50 percent) taken from the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative.

The University Reactor Fuel Assistance and Support program, which provides educational support for fueling university reactors, fellowships, and research, would receive $18.5 million, a decrease of $500,000 from the fiscal 2003 level.

A new program, the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, would receive $4 million in fiscal 2004, to support research into using nuclear power to provide the electricity needed to reform another fuel into hydrogen.

National Science Foundation: The NSF is requesting $5.48 billion for fiscal 2004, $450 million more than the previous fiscal year. The request for the Engineering Directorate is $540 million, an increase of $52 million above the fiscal 2003 level of $488 million. The directorate seeks to spur new technological innovations. Engineering will support research in areas that include information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and microelectronics.

The NSF request also includes $249 million for nanotechnology research, an increase of $28 million, and $303 million, up from $286 million, for information technology research.

National Institute of Standards and Technology: The fiscal 2004 request for mechanical engineering-related R&D for NIST is $496.8 million, down an astonishing $215.3 million from the fiscal 2003 level. The reason for the huge discrepancy is that Congress fully funded the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which the administration had tried to scuttle in fiscal 2003. Congress also added $73 million to the request for the Advanced Technology Program in fiscal 2003, for a total of $180 million.

After failing to discontinue funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership last year, the administration has set its sights on the Advanced Technology Program, which has long been derided in the House of Representatives as "corporate welfare." The budget request for ATP is $27 million, $153 million below the fiscal 2003 enacted level. On several occasions in the past few years, the House has tried to eliminate funding for the program, only to see the money restored in the House-Senate Conference Committee.

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