Federal Spending Bills Contain 2,526 R&D Earmarks, AAAS Analysis Finds

The SSTI Weekly says:

A new AAAS analysis of the disappointing federal budget for 2008 reveals Congress’s obsession with earmarks is back with a vengeance, guaranteeing that competition for the remaining federal funds for R&D will be even more fierce.

While lower than 2006, earmarks consumed $4.5 billion of the federal R&D budget, scattered among 2,526 projects AAAS was able to identify.

Congressional earmarks amounted to $939 million in the omnibus appropriations bill signed last month by President Bush and $3.5 billion in the Department of Defense appropriations bill enacted in November, said Kei Koizumi, head of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program.

"Although earmarked R&D funding declines in 2008 compared to previous years," Koizumi said, "in a tight budget environment, earmarks once again crowd out hoped-for increases in competitively awarded research programs."

Comment: There is a general argument that may have some merit that legislators, with the support of their staffs and inputs from the Executive Branch, and with the direct inputs from their constituents, may be at least as well able to make good decisions on funding priorities as the Executive Branch itself that prepares the budget proposal to the Congress. It is hard to see how the Legislative Branch can compete with the peer review process for research used by the scientific agencies of the Government. So, while I support increases in the research budget in general, Congressional earmarks do not seem to be the best way to achieve such increases.

On the other hand, it is also hard to keep the biggest hogs from the trough, so you might as well fill it with nutritious slop. Maybe it is better that the lawmakers fund research than bridges to nowhere! JAD