Planning the budget for this year and last.

The President's fiscal year (FY) 1997 budget plan, released Feb. 5, is a quick read. At 20 pages, it outlines spending recommendations but, unlike previous budget proposals (SN: 2/11/95, p. 87), contains no figures for individual agencies, including those funding science.

The administration promises to provide those details the week of March 18. Disagreements between Congress and the President over FY 1996 appropriations and balancing the budget slowed the administration's FY 1997 budget preparations. "This has been a very difficult year in which to make a budget," explained Alice M. Rivlin, director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a press conference Monday.

The President has nonetheless signed into law FY 1996 appropriations for the entire budgets of some agencies and parts of others. Research and development (R&D) stands to receive a good portion of the FY 1996 pie, predicts the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C., which has recently compiled and analyzed available government budget figures.

"There is still a tremendous amount of uncertainty because of the ongoing budget negotiations," AAAS reports. But as of late January, "R&D is faring better than many had expected earlier in the year."

The National Institutes of Health received an appropriation of $11.4 billion, 3.5 percent more than in FY 1995. Indeed, NIH "is likely to be the only civilian agency to enjoy an increase in FY 1996," AAAS predicts.

Congress and the administration have yet to agree on how much to give NIH's parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.

(Percentages in this article have been adjusted for the 2.7 percent inflation rate anticipated by the Congressional Budget Office for FY 1996. Figures for 1995 remain estimates because the agencies haven't released final numbers yet.)

R&D budgets for the Department of Defense, the Department of Agriculture, and parts of the Department of Energy have become law. Defense-related R&D at the Departments of Energy and Defense received $39.4 billion, a 1.7 percent increase over FY1995, AAAS reports. Funding for Energy's basic science programs grew by 7.4 percent, while Defense's fell 6.2 percent.

If Congress has its way, the government's nondefense R&D programs will suffer a 5.6 percent decrease overall. "But this figure is by no means final," AAAS warns. In contrast, Congress requested a cut of about 13 percent in the budgets of most other domestic programs.

Agriculture's R&D budget got cut by 6.4 percent. Funding for its basic research declined 3.1 percent, from $594.2 million to $591.5 million, AAAS reports.

The President has not signed FY 1996 appropriation bills that would fund NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Commerce Department, or the Department of the Interior. They are operating on funds that run out March 15.

Congress has proposed some big cuts in those agencies, however (SN: 4/22/95, p. 245; 9/23/95, p. 204), including eliminating Interior's Bureau of Mines (SN: 1/6/96, p. 7). The department's National Biological Service would move to the U.S. Geological Survey. Also in danger of getting the ax is Commerce's Advanced Technology Program, which develops risky, but potentially lucrative, enterprises with industry.

Funding for basic science in 1996 would drop by almost 34 percent at Interior, 25 percent at EPA, and 2.7 percent at NSF.