New Congress moves on science budget.

The new, Republican-led Congress completed its first 100 days on the job last week. Many members, particularly in the House, had promised to radically change how government does business during that time (SN: 1/14/95, p.20). Although scientists in and out of government have yet to see their funding sharply decreased, plans to do just that continue moving through the legislative process.

Both the House and Senate have approved cuts in science agency budgets for fiscal year 1995, which ends Sept. 30, and are putting the bills in final form to send to President Clinton (SN: 3/11/95, p.159).

The House Budget Committee is also floating a document, "Illustrative Republican Spending Cuts," listing programs and agencies that Congress should target to reduce government spending by $100 billion over the next 5 years. In it, committee members spell out their support for basic research and their opposition to government programs that help companies develop new technologies -- programs the administration has promoted.

The document, released March 16, recommends that over a 5-year period Congress should "begin termination of the Department of Energy," which would include a $2.3 billion reduction in energy supply research and development; "dissolve the National Biological Service," for $326 million in savings; decrease the Agricultural Research Service's budget by 10 percent; and reduce transportation research funding.

House Science Committee chairman Robert S. Walker (R--Pa.) recently announced his desire to have the space station funded separately from NASA, which faces deep cuts, to protect the station's current level of funding until its completion, expected in 2002.

"The specter of finishing the first session of the 104th Congress with science and technology resources slashed by a meat ax is a real one," White House Science Advisor John H. Gibbons asserted at an American Association for the Advancement of Science colloquium in Washington, D.C., last week.

"While the National Science Foundation hasn't appeared on a public hit list yet, [NSF] Director Neal Lane has been told to expect at least a 20 percent [budget] cut," Gibbons said. But a Walker spokeswoman said NSF would face a less than 20 percent cut.

In these tight budget times, the administration can't protect science from some cuts, Gibbons acknowledged. "The reality is grim for science and technology funding," he said.

Indeed, the President's fiscal year 1996 budget proposal recommends billions of dollars in cuts over the next 5 years for NSF, DOE, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and other departments that fund research.