SIAM Federal Research Priorities Advance as Congress Passes Omnibus Spending Package

After nearly six months of stop-gap funding measures that maintained government spending at fiscal year (FY) 2021 levels, Congress passed a spending package on March 11 for the remainder of FY 2022. This package follows President Biden’s first year in office, during which the administration set ambitious funding goals; pursued massive legislative packages to improve the nation’s infrastructure; and addressed public health, climate and clean energy, innovation, education, and racial equity — all while continuing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the first year of the Biden administration, the SIAM Committee on Science Policy has championed increased funding for federal agencies that support applied mathematics and computational science.

The FY 2022 omnibus package includes moderate increases for agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), and National Institutes of Health (NIH). The increases will allow these agencies to move forward with major initiatives like the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H); a new NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP); and many climate and infrastructure programs.

The omnibus will fund the NSF at $8.838 billion, an increase of $351.24 million (or 4.1 percent) from the FY 2021 enacted level. Though this represents the largest growth in NSF funding in more than a decade, the funding level remains far below the major increases that were proposed in President Biden’s budget request and House and Senate draft bills.

The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account—which includes the Division of Mathematical Sciences and all NSF research directorates—will be funded at $7.16 billion, an increase of $249.63 million (or 3.6 percent) from the FY 2021 level. The omnibus also approves the creation of the new TIP Directorate within R&RA but does not specify a funding level. The explanatory statement that accompanies the omnibus outlines TIP’s goals “to advance science and engineering research leading to breakthrough technologies, to find solutions to national and societal challenges, to strengthen U.S. global competitiveness, and to provide training opportunities for the development of a diverse STEM workforce.” The Directorate for Education and Human Resources—which funds programs that broaden participation in undergraduate and graduate education, among other activities—will receive $1.01 billion, a 3.9 percent increase over FY 2021 funding levels. Undergraduate education programs are flat funded at FY 2021 levels, but programs and graduate fellowships that broaden participation will each see modest increases of four to seven percent.

The omnibus will provide $44.9 billion for DOE: an increase of $5.2 billion (or 13 percent) above the FY 2021 enacted level. Consistent with the Biden administration’s priorities to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies to meet ambitious net zero carbon goals, the omnibus significantly increases investments in all fundamental and applied energy programs. Mathematical, computational, and computer science research will be funded at $260 million, which represents an increase of $10 million (or four percent) from FY 2021 enacted levels. The DOE’s Computational Science Graduate Fellowship is set to receive its first increase in many years; funding for the program will reach at least $15 million — a 50 percent increase over the FY 2021 enacted level. Funding for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) across all Office of Science programs faces a small cut to its $120 million budget.

DOD’s science and technology accounts—which include basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development—will be funded at $18.8 billion, a 12 percent increase to the FY 2021 level. Basic research accounts across the services and department wide will experience a five percent increase overall, with the Army securing the largest increase (10.4 percent) and the Air Force collecting the smallest increase (0.8 percent). Basic research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will collect $446 million — $50 million over the budget request but six percent below the FY 2021 funding level. Congress provides specific funding for AI, ML, and cyber efforts within the Army and DARPA. For the first time, Congress will also bestow $15 million to the new Space Force for fundamental research, which could include novel basic research efforts.

The omnibus will supply a total of $45 billion to NIH in FY 2022 — an increase of $2.03 billion (or 4.7 percent) over the FY 2021 enacted level. This marks the seventh consecutive funding increase for NIH. In addition, Congress will provide $1 billion to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish ARPA-H. The HHS Secretary can choose to transfer this money and is expected to move the funding to NIH. ARPA-H, which was first articulated in President Biden’s budget request, aims to speed up transformational innovation in health research; support high-risk, high-reward research; and accelerate the translation of fundamental biomedical research into clinical applications to provide more treatments and cures for disease. SIAM has been engaging with NIH and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to encourage ARPA-H’s support of innovations in applied mathematics, computational science, data, AI, and ML.

Now that FY 2022 appropriations are finalized, Congress turns to FY 2023 appropriations and awaits the president’s FY 2023 budget request. SIAM will continue to advocate for strong funding for applied mathematics and computational science programs at relevant agencies, and will keep members informed as the process unfolds.