Science and medicine would receive a small increase in the $1.96 trillion budget President Bush proposed on Monday.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would once again receive a budget increase, as would the National Science Foundation (NSF) if the budget is approved.
The Bush administration wants to cut the Advanced Technology Program, a high-risk, high payoff grant funded by the Department of Commerce. The budget also cuts back significantly on environmental research spending.
And although science and medical research agencies will receive budget increases, the funds are a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the budget.
"Bush is talking about a tax cut of 1.6 trillion. When you're talking about a budget of $4 billion for the NSF, that gives you an idea of the difference in orders of magnitude," said Alan Auerbach, a professor of economics and law at the University of California at Berkeley, and a member of an economic advisory panel for the Congressional Budget Office.
However, other types of research would be given more money than last year.
The near-completion of the Human Genome Project earlier this year, as well as major advances in areas such as stem cell and transplantation, have cast a positive light on biological research in recent years, perhaps resulting in a continuation of former President Clinton's enthusiasm for investing in the medical and biological sciences.
The NSF asked for $4.47 billion, a 1.3 percent increase over the current budget. The foundation would receive $4.5 billion under the fiscal 2002 budget proposal.
Mary Clutter, assistant director of the Directorate for the Biological Sciences at the NSF, said the organization will spend the bulk of its money on programs to accelerate information technology, biocomplexity and the environment, and nanoscale science.
The increase is also good news for graduate students who win NSF fellowships. The stipend would increase to $20,500 from $18,000.
"Our first priority is people and their ideas," Clutter said.
The foundation will also increase the size and duration of research project grants.
"We have a goal in the biological sciences for award sizes to be more than $100,000 per year as an average" over a period of about five years, Clutter said.
She said she hoped that would be more efficient than awarding $90,000 over a period of three years, which is the average now.
"A lot of people are complaining that all they do is write proposals and they're not spending enough time in the lab," Clutter said.
On Monday, the NSF also announced a new grant for high-risk -- but high potential return -- research called the Biological Information Technology and Systems Program.
Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary, said in a press conference on Monday that the potential breakthroughs in cancer and other diseases are worth the increased money allocated to the NIH.
"This research is vital, as we truly are on the cusp of finding the cures of some of our most debilitating and deadly diseases," Thompson said.
The NIH, which conducts and funds medical research and the study of human biology, would see a funding increase of $2.75 billion for a total of $23.1 billion, supporting over 34,000 research project grants.
The NIH will concentrate the funds on finding treatments and cures for diseases like cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer's. Studies on these and other diseases would increase by 13.5 percent.
"Cancer is always a favorite because no one is against curing cancer," Auerbach said. "That's one of the reasons the NIH budget has been doing well."
Funding to research an AIDS vaccine has been increased to $357 million, a 27 percent increase over funding in fiscal 2001 that ends Sept. 30.
The NIH supports the work of researchers at about 2,000 universities, hospitals and other research facilities.
Overall, the funding for AIDS research would increase by 11.5 percent to $2.5 billion.
Reuters contributed to this report.
