Funding shortfalls threaten science research

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists are chafing at the U.S. government's unfulfilled pledge to boost funding for basic scientific research, the source of innovations ranging from the World Wide Web to high-tech cancer treatments.

The estimated $500 million sliced out of the fiscal 2008 federal budget for research projects seeking answers to fundamental questions such as the nature of the universe could trigger a brain drain, scientists and others warn.

"Scientists are not going to wait around to be brought back. There will definitely be a brain drain," said Republican U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois, a key player in securing funding for Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago.

"It was very troublesome to me, because we have had such a focus on basic research and how important it is to American competitiveness and our long-term economic growth," Biggert said. "We're worried about the 2009 budget now."

President George W. Bush offers his 2009 budget blueprint to Congress on Tuesday, which could compensate for the shortfalls in the 2008 budget.

But passage of the budget is likely months away, and other spending priorities and a multibillion-dollar budget deficit are sure to constrain outlays.

In December, Bush ordered the Democratic-controlled Congress to stick to his 2008 budget cap in its final catch-all spending bill, and the resulting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding cuts left many researchers in shock.

"All these agencies (that fund scientific research) were caught up in this shoot-out between the White House and Congress," said Michael Lubell, a physicist and a spokesman for the profession's American Physical Society.