BUDGET BOOSTS R&D SUPPORT

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA is proposing to spend $147.6 billion in fiscal 2010 to support federal R&D. The 2010 budget, released on May 7, represents a 0.4%, or $555 million, increase over the 2009 R&D budget. The detailed 2010 budget request expands on the budget outline released by the Administration in February (C&EN, March 9, page 4). Consistent with that outline, neither the fiscal 2009 nor fiscal 2010 budget includes funds allocated under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, which provides more than $18.3 billion for R&D over the two-year period. “We in the science and technology community have done better than just about any other constituency” in the 2010 budget proposal, said John P. Holdren, director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy, at a press briefing. The reason, Holdren continued, is that “we have in the White House a President that gets it.” The emphasis on basic and applied research in the budget ...