President
Bush's fiscal year (FY) 2004 budget request for the Commerce
Department's Technology Administration (TA) is $504.8 million.
The proposed budget reflects the President's prioritiesand
technology is the common denominator. Additionally, the proposed
budget seeks to marshal the nation's technology resources
to help the United States win the war on terrorism, strengthen
homeland security, improve health care quality, and foster
advances in nanotechnology and quantum computing.
The Technology
Administration includes the Office of the Under Secretary
(US) for Technology, the Office of Technology Policy (OTP),
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
Office of the Under Secretary for Technology/Office
of Technology Policy
US/OTP
serves as the federal government's primary advocate for innovation
and industrial competitiveness, analyst of civilian industry
technology issues, and incubator of new models of domestic
and international technology cooperation.
The President's
FY 2004 budget request for the Office of the Under Secretary
for Technology and the Office of Technology Policy (US/OTP)
is $8 million, to support its work with the private
sector to analyze, develop, coordinate and advocate national
policies that maximize technology's contribution to the war
on terrorism, homeland security, job creation, and economic
growth and security. This includes:
- Enhancing
management efficiencies, in support of the President's Management
Agenda, including the transfer of the Office of Space Commercialization
from TA to the International Trade Administration (ITA)
within the Commerce Department to give space commercialization
issues greater emphasis. This will require a legislative
change.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST operatesin
close partnership with the private sectortechnology
support programs that impact the nation's continued economic
growth and global competitiveness. NIST's challenge is to
anticipate, develop and provide American industry with the
technology, measurements and standards support it needs now
and in the future.
The FY
2004 budget request of $496.8 million for NIST is divided
into three appropriations:
- $387.6
million for efforts under the Scientific and Technical
Research and Services (STRS) appropriation that includes
funding for (1) the NIST Laboratories and (2) the Baldrige
National Quality Program.
This request
includes:
-
$381.8 million for the NIST Laboratories
to provide U.S. industry and the science/technology community
with the measurement capabilities, standards, evaluated
reference data and test methods needed to support innovation,
improve quality and lower transaction costs in virtually
all technology-intensive sectors.
-
$5.8 million for the Baldrige National Quality
Program to manage the annual award competition (for
the manufacturing, service, small business, health care
and education sectors), conduct the annual Quest for Excellence
conference where Baldrige winners share their performance
excellence strategies, continually improve the performance
excellence criteria, and facilitate data sharing among
all U.S. economic sectors.
The FY
2004 request for the NIST Laboratories proposes $27.7 million
in increases to fund new initiatives supporting the nation's
economic growth, including:
-
$10.3 million to provide measurements
and infrastructure for homeland security. The resources
will fund the development and dissemination of standards
for safety and security of building and biometric identification
systems. This breaks down into:
- $5.3
million
to develop the measurement infrastructure
needed to detect nuclear and radiological ("dirty
bomb") threats, to improve the use of radiation
such as X-rays and other imaging techniques to detect
concealed terrorist threats, and to use radiation
safely and effectively to destroy biowarfare agents
such as anthrax.
- $4
million as part of a program to use lessons
learned from the NIST-led investigation of the World
Trade Center collapse to make buildings, occupants
and emergency responders safer from terrorist attacks
on buildings and other building disasters. The requested
funds will help NIST, the private sector, and state
and local agencies to learn more and to develop and
disseminate guidance on building practices, building
codes, occupant behavior and emergency response to
save lives and reduce property loss.
- $1
million to develop standards and test methods
for biometric identification systems used to identify
positively the approximately 20 million non-citizens
who enter the United States each year or apply for
visas. This will enable NIST to carry out the mandate
of the USA PATRIOT Act, which requires NIST to develop
technology standards for biometric identification,
recognizing NIST's long history of expertise in this
area.
-
$9.2 million to support and enhance programs in
nanotechnology ($5.2 million), quantum computing
($3 million), and health care quality assurance
($1 million).
-
$8.2 million,
of which $6.7 million would be used for NIST's
Advanced Measurement Laboratory ($5.5 million for
equipment and $1.2 million for maintenance and
operation), and $1.5 million would be used to fund
time-scale dissemination backup elements.
When occupied in 2004, the AML will be the world's premier
measurement laboratory, capable of providing measurement
and standards support for key industries of the 21st century
such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and homeland security.
- 69.6
million under the Construction of Research Facilities
(CRF) appropriation, for NIST facilities and infrastructure
that reflects the following increases:
- $35.2
million for construction and renovation projects
to
help ensure that the NIST laboratories are adequate
to deliver on their promises. This includes:
- $21.3
million that will go toward long-overdue
improvements at NIST's Boulder, Colo., laboratories,
where most of the buildings are nearly 50 years
old.
- $10.56
million for safety, maintenance and repair improvements
at both the Boulder and Gaithersburg, Md., campuses.
- $3.36
million for the design to renovate one of the
NIST Gaithersburg General Purpose Laboratories.
- $39.6
million for technology development and industrial
outreach under the Industrial Technology Services (ITS)
appropriation that includes:
- $27
million for administrative and other expenses
needed to terminate the Advanced Technology Program
(ATP) that provides cost-shared funding to industry
for high-risk research and development.
- $12.6
million for the widely distributed services
and hands-on technical assistance to small manufacturing
establishments through a nationwide network of centers
under the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).
The request maintains the FY 2003 policy of funding
the partnership according to its original plan, which
called for the phase-out of federal monies to MEP centers
after six years of funding. MEP central coordination
activities and the federal share of the two centers
less than seven years old would be funded.
These
actions are consistent with the President's emphasis on shifting
scarce resources to reflect higher-priority national needs.
Investment of limited NIST resources in the laboratory programs
and facilities will have the greatest impact on strengthening
homeland security and fostering innovation that leads to economic
growth.
National Technical Information Service
NTIS maintains,
sells and distributes a collection of scientific and technical
information from federal agencies.
NTIS covers
its operating costs through fees for its products and services;
there is no FY 2004 appropriation request for the agency.
Technology
Administration Budget Summary FY 2002-2004
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