Analysis: How NSF ’s budget got hammered

Two summers ago, officials at the National Science Foundation (NSF) had good reason to anticipate years of healthy budget increases for the basic research agency. In August 2022, President Joe Biden had signed the CHIPS and Science Act, landmark legislation to revive the U.S. semiconductor industry that included a promise to more than double NSF’s budget, to $18.9 billion, by 2027. And that December, Congress made a down payment on that promise by adding $1 billion in so-called emergency spending to the agency’s base budget, boosting it to nearly $9.9 billion. In March 2023, Biden added to the momentum by asking Congress to boost NSF’s budget by 19%, to $11.3 billion, in the upcoming 2024 fiscal year. In hindsight, however, that was the high-water mark for NSF’s lofty ambitions. Over the past year, the rosy NSF spending scenario envisioned by the CHIPS act collided with an increasingly firm political consensus to hold down overall federal spending. And austerity won out. Last week, Congress slashed this year’s NSF budget by 8%, to $9.06 billion, as part of a bill to fund several agencies through the rest of the fiscal year and avert a partial government shutdown. It’s an unprecedented reduction for an agency that, historically, has enjoyed a stellar reputation in Congress. And there’s little chance things will get better anytime soon. For example, in a 2025 budget request submitted last week, Biden is asking Congress to give NSF only $300 milli...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news