In his FY 2001 Budget Request, recently sent to Congress, President Clinton asked for $42 billion, a $2.8 billion increase, for the "Twenty-First Century Research Fund," up 7% from FY 2000. Clinton said these investments "will enable America to continue to lead in the 21st Century by increasing support for all scientific and engineering disciplines, " including the creation of "cleaner sources of energy." A synopsis of key aspects of the Clinton Science and Technology requests follows:
NIST, up 23% NSF, up 17.3 % NASA Space Science, up 9.4% NIH, up 5.6% DoD Research, up 4.3% DOE: Total, up 9.1% to $18.9 billion Research, up 8% to $7.6 billion Defense Programs Stockpile Stewardship, up 13.1% to $1.05 billion Defense Programs Inertial Confinement Fusion Research, up 17.3% to $265.5 million Office of Science, up 12% to $3.151 billion Advanced Scientific Computing, up 42% to $182 million Basic Energy Sciences, up 30% to $1.015 billion Nuclear Physics, up 4% to $369.9 million High Energy Physics, up 2% to $714.7 million Biological and Environmental Research, up 3% to $445.3 million Climate Change, up 19% to $1.1 billion Fossil Energy, up 1% to $406.6 million Carbon Sequestration, up 112% to$19.5 million Energy Conservation, up 12% to $850 million Solar and Renewables, up 28% to $456 million Nuclear Fission, up 7% to $306 million Advanced Nuclear Fission Initiative, up 56% to $35 million Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, up 1% to $247.27 millionThe Office of Fusion Energy Sciences budget includes an increase of $9.34 million for decommissioning and waste cleanup costs, so that the actual Office of Fusion Energy Sciences research programs are actually down 3% to $224.5 million. DOE also did not request $10 million in funds for high average power laser research in the Defense Programs budget that Congress added in FY 2000, which are important for the civilian applications of inertial fusion. Thus the total civilian-oriented fusion research program would be down 7% from FY 2000 in the President's FY 2001 request.