Bush Budget Likely to Rein In High-Tech

Feb 28 2001

The White House released details Wednesday of President George W. Bush's proposed $2 trillion federal budget for 2002, and while some high-tech programs are likely to get the ax, new spending is being proposed for an e-government initiative.

Funding for the e-government plan, which would start at $10 million and total $100 million over three years, would build on the FirstGov portal, started by the Clinton administration, which gives access to information and forms issued across many agencies. The money would be used, in part, to help the government reduce paperwork through the promotion and use of digital signatures.

The budget also proposes an increase of $56 million, or about 1 percent, for the $4.5 billion research budget of the National Science Foundation, which got a nearly $500 million boost between 2000 and 2001. The agency also would be required to hand $200 million of its funding over to states under a new program aimed at promoting math and science in elementary and secondary schools.

In addition, the proposed budget would suspend the Commerce Department's $190 million advanced technology program, which funds a partnership between the agency and universities, companies and nonprofit groups in an effort to fund research in a broad range of fields including chemistry, electronics and information technologies.

Bush's plan includes no mention of the $2.25 billion e-rate program, a subsidy funded by consumer long-distance telephone fees to help pay for Internet connections in schools and libraries. Bush officials have advocated abandoning the current program, under which schools apply directly for funds, in favor of simply having the Department of Education give block grants to states.

An Office of Management and Budget official said the e-rate program was still under review and that any significant changes to it would require legislation from Congress.

The 207-page budget plan from Bush, who took office only last month, lacks information about proposed changes in many programs and, unlike recent Clinton budgets, does not calculate total proposed spending on research and development. But with only a modest increase in overall discretionary spending and big increases already announced for defense and medical research spending, the high-tech community has been expecting cuts in its pet programs.

More details of the plan will be released in April, as is typical with most incoming presidents. On Capitol Hill, members of Congress already have complained about some of the rollbacks in high-tech funding and, ultimately, might balk at voting in favor of enacting the president's plan.

Mitch Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget and the architect of the plan released Wednesday, said he saw substantial waste in previous spending on "so-called research programs." Many programs "have nothing to show for years and years of essentially subsidizing corporate research budgets," he added.

The proposed Bush budget relies on two of the Clinton administration's favorite "revenue offsets," plans to raise more federal revenue without hiking taxes. It proposes raising $1 billion over five years by imposing a fee on TV stations that have not switched to digital broadcasting from analog. The broadcasting industry successfully has persuaded Congress not to adopt a so-called spectrum fee in previous years, and the Bush plan proposes moving unspecified spectrum auctions from 2002 and 2003 to later years, adding $7.5 billion to government coffers.