Federal Research and Development (R&D) Funding: FY2024 (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
May 19, 2023 |
| Report Number |
R47564 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
John F. Sargent Jr., Coordinator; Daniel Morgan; Lisa S. Benson; David Randall Peterman; Marcy E. Gallo; Kavya Sekar; Laurie A. Harris; Jared S. Sussman; Angela C. Jones |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The 118th Congress is engaged in a range of legislative activities focused on the U.S. research and
development (R&D) enterprise, in particular federal R&D programs and policies, including
authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. The federal government has played an important
role in supporting R&D efforts that have led to scientific breakthroughs and new technologies,
from jet aircraft and the internet to communications satellites, shale gas extraction, and defenses
against disease. Beyond agency mission objectives and policies to promote the competitiveness of
the United States in the global economy, executive and legislative branch decisions about the
prioritization of R&D have recently been driven by federal budget caps, both in the context of the
entire federal budget as well as among competing needs within the federal R&D portfolio.
The U.S. government supports a broad range of scientific and engineering R&D. Its purposes
include addressing national defense, health, safety, the environment, and energy security;
advancing knowledge generally; developing the U.S. scientific and engineering workforce; and
strengthening the capacity of U.S. institutions and firms to conduct cutting-edge scientific
research and develop innovative technologies; and enhancing the global competitiveness of U.S.
institutions and firms. Most of the R&D funded by the federal government is performed in
support of the unique missions of individual funding agencies.
The federal R&D budget is an aggregation of the R&D activities of these agencies. There is no
single, centralized source of R&D funds. Agency R&D budgets are developed internally as part
of each agency’s overall budget development process. R&D funding may be included either in
appropriations accounts that are entirely devoted to R&D or in accounts that also include funding
for non-R&D activities. Agency budgets are subjected to review, revision, and approval by the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and become part of the President’s annual budget
submission to Congress. The federal R&D budget is then calculated by aggregating the R&D
activities of all federal agencies.
Congress plays a central role in defining the nation’s R&D priorities as it makes decisions about
the level and allocation of R&D funding—overall, within agencies, and for specific programs. As
Congress acts to complete the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations process, it faces two
overarching issues: the amount of the federal budget to be spent on federal R&D and the
prioritization and allocation of the available funding.
This report begins with a discussion of the overall funding level of R&D in President Biden’s
FY2024 budget request, followed by analyses of requested R&D funding in selected agency and
department budgets and for selected multiagency initiatives; these include analyses of the budget
by agency; by character of R&D work; and by a combination of the two perspectives. The
remainder of the report discusses and analyzes the R&D budget requests of selected federal
departments and agencies that collectively account for approximately 99% of total federal R&D
funding.
Selected terms associated with federal R&D funding are defined in the text box on the next page.
The Appendix lists the primary CRS experts on R&D funding for the agencies covered in this
report.
