Money, Money, Money, Money

Before the Wall Street financial crisis hit the Hill like Hurricane Ike, congress and the president addressed the federal budget--well a temporary fix for the most part.


Last week the president signed into law the FY09 continuing resolution (CR). [Note last blog entry below]. This will fund the federal government through March 6, 2009. After the new session of Congress begins in January we should have a better idea of how they will go about funding the rest of FY 09...or at least that's the plan.

In short, the CR freezes funding for most federal agencies at their FY08 levels during that period, including those federal agencies of major interest to A&M researchers: the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and NASA.

Regarding financial aid, the CR includes an additional $2.5 billion to help address a projected $6 billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program over three academic years (07-08, 08-09, 09-10) and maintain the maximum award at its current level. Some $750 million of the appropriated amount is a down payment on the shortfall.

Funded for the full fiscal year “minibus” of three national security full-year appropriations bills—Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.
Within the Department of Defense (DOD) bill, funding for basic research (budget function 6.1) is $1.842 billion, a 12.7-percent increase above FY08 and higher than either the House or Senate subcommittee-approved levels.