From josuna@cra.org Thu May 11 15:08:25 1995 Received: from [198.180.53.5] (mac3.cra.org) by cra.org (4.1/1.34) id AA11703; Thu, 11 May 95 15:08:25 EDT Date: Thu, 11 May 95 15:08:24 EDT X-Sender: josuna@198.180.53.2 Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: cra_b@cra.org From: josuna@cra.org (Juan Osuna) Subject: CRA Bulletin 3.5 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= COMPUTING RESEARCH ASSOCIATION BULLETIN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 3 Number 5 May 11, 1995 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- About CRA: Computing Research Association is a non-profit association of computer science and computer engineering departments, industrial research institutions and affiliated technical societies in the U.S. and Canada. To Subscribe: Send the following mail message to listproc@cra.org: subscribe cra_b firstname lastname Archives: Located at http://cra.org/cra_b/. Copyright (C) 1995 by Computing Research Association. All rights reserved. CRA Bulletin may be redistributed as long as it is done entirely with all attributions to organizations and authors. Commercial distribution is strictly prohibited. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= SENATE BUDGET RESOLUTION RELEASED ============================================================================ The Senate Budget Committee released its Balanced Budget Resolution Tuesday, with significant, long-term cuts for science and technology but none specifically targeted at computing. Issued by Budget Committee Chair Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), the proposal attempts to balance the budget by the year 2002, as promised by Republican members. The resolution contains a $7.6 billion cut over the next seven years for science and technology, compared with the current law budget baseline in which S&T remains constant at $17.2 billion annually through 2002. The Republican proposal would add real cuts to this already stagnant budget, which will inevitably be debilitated by inflation. The good news for researchers is that science and technology faired better than most other sectors of government, except for the Defense Department and the Justice Administration. The Committee aims most of its S&T cuts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy. The Department of Commerce would be gradually eliminated, with certain critical functions such as the census, subsumed by other agencies. However, the proposal may spell trouble for technology-related programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Telecommunications and Information, Administration, which reside within Commerce. Also, the resolution asks that $100 million be taken from the National Science Foundation's fiscal 1996 budget for academic infrastructure and major research equipment, saying the Foundation should "refocus on its original mission of basic scientific research." While cuts to the Education Department are broadly stated, the proposal specifically says that the government should no longer subsidize interest rates on graduate and professional student loans. This "enhances graduate and professional students' responsibility for education expenses," the resolution remarks. Defense cuts of $8 billion for next year and $48 billion over the next seven are targeted at "military personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement, and research development," which means the Advanced Research Projects Agency could be affected. The seven-year, $48 billion reduction is $25 billion more than reductions already authorized by current law. It is impossible to tell at this point how these broad Defense cuts will affect ARPA-sponsored research. As the resolution treats broad government sectors, no mention was made for the inter-agency High Performance Computing and Communications program. The House Budget Committee is scheduled to release its own budget report in the next few days and will be reconciled in conference with the Senate resolution. At a press conference Thursday, Robert S. Walker (R-PA), chair of House Science Committee, discussed the House recommendations for science funding in broad terms, very similar to Senate proposals. In the House version, basic research funding would decline from $7.1 billion in 1996 to $6.8 billion in 2000. Also, the Department of Energy along with the Advanced Technology and Information Infrastructure programs at NIST would be terminated. The National Science Foundation research activities would continue to grow at a rate of about three percent annually, excluding "social, behavorial and economic studies and the Critical Technologies Institute," Walker said. Full details of the House recommendations will be released in the next few days. The specific budget "marks" would be binding to the appropriations committees. How binding the suggestions of where to cut are to appropriators is some matter of debate, however. -- Editorial Staff: Juan Antonio Osuna, CRA Bulletin Editor josuna@cra.org Rick Weingarten, CRA Executive Director rick@cra.org Computing Research Association 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 718 Washington, DC 20009 phone: (202) 234-2111 fax: (202) 667-1066