APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS IS KIND TO RESEARCH.

Even though thousands of bills are introduced in the House and Senate each year, only 13 of them are required by the Constitution to be enacted: those that appropriate funding for federal agencies and programs. Throughout this year's congressional appropriations process, ASME's Washington Center

ASME tracks appropriations bills from their inception at the subcommittee level in the spring of each year, all the way through to passage and enactment into law, usually in late autumn. Along the way, various boards and committees make their views known to appropriators through position statements, testimony before congressional committees, and by personal visits to key representatives and senators.

The process begins in February, when the chairs of ASME task forces and committees representing various R&D interests meet in Washington to receive budget briefings by key administration officials and Capitol Hill staff. The attendees then disperse to various agencies to meet with senior officials and learn of their budget priorities for the year and how ASME members will be affected. What is learned during this two-day meeting becomes the basis for written and oral testimony before House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees.

This year, ASME groups submitted written testimony on the budget requests for NASA, the Department of Energy; the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology In addition, the chair of the Energy Committee delivered oral testimony on DOE'S fossil energy and energy conservation budgets before the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies.

The testimony and other position statements form the basis for tracking developments in the appropriations process. When issues arise during the year, the same committees, divisions, and task forces often must follow up with congressional committees to reiterate their positions.

For example, when the House declined to fund the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program, ASME's NIST Task Force issued a letter to the House-Senate conferees on the Commerce, Justice, State Department appropriations bill urging them to adopt the Senate language, which provided funding for advanced technology at the level requested by the administration. The conference committee ultimately restored the funding.

In addition, the task force's testimony helped the American National Standards Institute, for the first time, secure funding for its participation as the U.S. representative to the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Each appropriations process usually sees several success stories. One of this year's biggest was an effort undertaken by ASME and other engineering and scientific societies to preserve NASA's research budget. The space agency's budget--particularly for the International Space Station--is the target of budget cutters year in and year out. Accordingly, in its version of the Veterans Administration, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies bill, the House provided nearly $1 billion less for NASA's R&D programs than the agency received in fiscal year 1999. The Senate bill restored that cut.

An extensive effort by ASME's Aerospace Task Force and other groups convinced the House-Senate conference committee to accede to the Senate levels, and fully fund NASA's R&D program. The full House and Senate approved the conference report, and the President signed the bill into law.

Another success story involves a budget area with which ASME has not been active in the past: defense R&D. The Department of Defense funds nearly one-third of all engineering research. R&D budgets at the Department of Defense have not been high priorities in recent years, either in the administration or in Congress. This year, that changed, at least in part because of a coordinated effort by a coalition of engineering and scientific organizations.

The Coalition for National Security Research, as the group is known, began its effort at the beginning of this year's appropriations process, planning strategy and targeting key members of Congress. The effort involved a highly successful Capitol Hill luncheon briefing, co-sponsored by ASME, at which a former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, along with key members of the House Armed Services Committee, stressed the importance of R&D on the future security of the nation.

The result was an outcome that few in the engineering and science communities would have dared dream of in the spring. In fiscal year 2000, overall defense R&D spending will increase an incredible 8.2 percent over fiscal 1999 levels, and 14.3 percent above the President's request, even as the overall federal budget declines, or at least remains static.

Francis Dietz works in ASME Government Relations in Washington, D.C.