IP: Puff away -- R&D Increases Linked to Tobacco Bill

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 47: March 26, 1998


Administration's R&D Funding Increases Tied to Tobacco Settlement


"The message is: Research has a stake in the tobacco settlement." 
--Skip Stiles, House Science Committee Minority Legislative
Director


In what was intended as a demonstration of support for civilian
R&D, President Clinton's FY 1999 budget request proposed an eight
percent increase for programs in his Research Fund for America. 
(The fund includes research within HHS, NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA,
USGS, EPA, VA, and the Departments of Commerce and Education.) 
Furthermore, Clinton's request projects a 32 percent increase for
the fund by the year 2003.  But the way the White House intends
to pay for much of the increase is based on a very uncertain
proposition: revenues from a tobacco settlement.  Administration
officials have been loathe to make this connection too clearly. 
At a March 17 White House event where federal officials met with
representatives of the science community and professional
societies, only a congressional staffer made the forthright
comment, "research has a stake in the tobacco settlement."


The March 17 meeting was organized by The Science Coalition to
discuss funding mechanisms to support the proposed increases for
science.  Although other administration representatives echoed
Presidential Science Advisor John Gibbons' statement that there
was not "a one-to-one correlation" between science increases and
tobacco money, they conveyed the message that the proposed
funding growth for science was unlikely unless Congress agreed to
funnel some tobacco money in that direction.  That may prove
problematic because it is based on a chain of contingencies: it
is unclear whether a bipartisan tobacco agreement can be reached
this year and how much such an agreement would make available for
federal spending.  Even if Congress comes to an agreement on
legislation, it may decide not to spend any of that money on the
Research Fund for America.


"It is not the position of the White House," Gibbons stated,
"that if we don't get a tobacco settlement, we don't get
[additional research funding.]" The proposed budget increase for
R&D, he said,  "essentially creates an opportunity space for us
to work together to persuade Congress to do at least this much if
not better" for science.  But if tobacco money does not 
contribute to the research increases, funds would have to come
from the budget surplus,  the breaking of budget caps agreed to
last year, or offsets from other discretionary programs.  All of
these options have political problems.  


Harold Varmus, Director of NIH, believed the administration would
work to find additional funding for research regardless of the
outcome of tobacco legislation because it was "very high on the
President's agenda."  NSF Director Neal Lane, though, cautioned,
"please do not underestimate" the importance of passing a tobacco
bill.  T.J. Glauthier, Associate Director of OMB, said the
congressional debate has shifted from whether there will be a
settlement to "how to spend the money."  But Skip Stiles,


Minority Legislative Director for the House Science Committee,
pointed out that "the links the President made between tobacco
legislation and R&D are not being made on the Hill....  We all
need to make that linkage in the minds of Members."


Members of the audience questioned what role the science
community could, or should, play in promoting a tobacco
agreement.  Gibbons responded that societies could only continue
to stress the benefits of R&D to society "so it doesn't come off
the agenda."  Lane suggested that perhaps tobacco issues could be
tied into "the larger issue" of science's contributions to human
health and welfare.  


Gibbons reported that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), Chair of the
Senate Budget Committee, has introduced a budget resolution
specifying that any funds from a tobacco settlement go to a
Medicare trust fund and that any budget surplus be dedicated to
Social Security.  Although the resolution would not fund all the
programs President Clinton requested, some reports indicate that
it would provide strong support for NIH, NSF, and DOE's research
programs.


Since the March 17 meeting, work on a tobacco bill in the Senate
has been stymied in two separate committees.  Prospects for
legislation that the President could sign are still unknown, and
there are many competing proposals for how to use the revenues.  


###############
Audrey T. Leath
Public Information Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi () aip org
(301) 209-3094
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