The National Science Foundation would receive in Fiscal Year 2007 an increase of $439 million, or 8 percent, under the recommendation approved by the House Appropriations Committee June 20. This increase to $6 billion is at the level of the NSF budget request.

For NSF Research and Related Activities: the increase is $334.5 million to $4,665,950,000. The bill language includes the language from the House Science Committee bills on new authority to receive donations for prize authority.

Education and Human Resources will receive an increase of $35.74 million over the current year and $16.2 million above the NSF request to total $832,432,000 in Fiscal Year 2007.

If the Committee's recommendation is eventually enacted, it will mark a welcome turnaround for NSF funding. Last year, the administration had been planning to include research programs along with other non-security, domestic programs as areas to address to cut the annual budget deficit in half over five years. The President’s proposal this year for the American Competitiveness Initiative reverses that trend and would double research funding for NSF, DOE Office of Science and NIST over ten years.

The recommendation by the Committee for NSF is for the same amount as requested in The President’s American Competitiveness Initiative.