Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2018 (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Jan. 25, 2018 |
| Report Number |
R44888 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
John F. Sargent Jr., Robert Esworthy, Marcy E. Gallo, Laurie A. Harris, Judith A. Johnson, Jim Monke, Daniel Morgan, Harold F. Upton |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
President Trump’s budget request for FY2018 includes $117.697 billion for research and
development (R&D). This represents a $30.605 billion (20.6%) decrease from the FY2016 actual
level of $148.302 billion (FY2017 enacted levels were not available at the time of publication).
Adjusted for inflation, the President’s FY2018 R&D request represents a constant dollar decrease
of 23.6% from the FY2016 actual level.
However, in 2016 the Office of Management and Budget changed the definition used for
“development” to “experimental development.” This new definition was used in calculating R&D
in the FY2018 budget, but no adjustments were made to data reported for FY2016 or FY2017
data to reflect the new definition. OMB asserts that the definitional change results in the
exclusion of $33.547 billion from FY2018 requested R&D funding (DOD and NASA) that would
have been included in previous years. According to OMB, these funds are being requested in the
FY2018 budget, but no longer classified as R&D. Thus, applying the prior definition for R&D,
aggregate federal R&D in the Trump Administration’s budget for FY2018 would represent a
$2.942 billion (2.0%) increase over FY2016; in constant dollars, federal R&D would be down
$2.837 billion, or 1.9%. The DOD and VA would receive increased R&D funding for FY2018.
The other major federal R&D funding agencies would see their R&D budgets reduced under the
President’s budget.
The request represents the President’s R&D priorities; Congress may opt to agree with none, part,
or all of the request, and it may express different priorities through the appropriations process. In
particular, Congress will play a central role in determining the allocation of the federal R&D
investment in a period of intense pressure on discretionary spending. Budget caps may limit
overall R&D funding and may require movement of resources across disciplines, programs, or
agencies to address priorities.
Funding for R&D is concentrated in a few departments and agencies. Under President Trump’s
FY2018 budget request, eight federal agencies would receive 96.5% of total federal R&D
funding, with the Department of Defense (45.4%) and the Department of Health and Human
Services (22.2%) combined accounting for more than two-thirds of all federal R&D funding.
President’s Trump’s FY2018 budget is largely silent on funding levels for a number of
multiagency R&D initiatives in President Obama’s FY2017 request, including the National
Nanotechnology Initiative, Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
program, U.S. Global Change Research Program, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative, Precision Medicine Initiative, Cancer Moonshot,
Materials Genome Initiative, National Robotics Initiative, and National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation. However, some activities supporting these initiatives are discussed in
agency budget justifications and reported in the agency analyses in this report.
In recent years, Congress has completed the annual appropriations process after the start of the
fiscal year. Failure to complete the process by the start of the fiscal year and the accompanying
use of continuing resolutions can affect agencies’ execution of their R&D budgets, including the
delay or cancellation of planned R&D activities and the acquisition of R&D-related equipment.
