FY06
Budget Briefing by Under Secretary for Technology Phillip
Bond and NIST Acting Director Hratch Semerjian (pdf)
Budget
Table
More
TA/NIST Budget Information
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current status of FY 2006 appropriations bills
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FY 2006 Budget Information
WASHINGTON,
D.C. - An increased emphasis on research to support key
Administration priorities in advanced manufacturing,
homeland security, and health and information technologies
highlights
the FY 2006 request for the Commerce Department’s
Technology Administration (TA) submitted to the Congress
today by President Bush. The budget proposes a total of
$536.2 million in funding for TA, underscoring the President’s
continued commitment to research and development. “This budget includes significant boosts for TA’s
highest priority research efforts while still supporting
the President’s commitment to responsible spending
restraint,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology
Phillip J. Bond. “It enables us to continue to act
as strong advocates for innovation and industrial competitiveness
both inside and outside the government, and provide our nation
with a reliable foundation for the technology infrastructure.”
The Technology Administration includes the technology policy
staff of the Office of the Under Secretary, the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National
Technical Information Service (NTIS). Below is a more detailed
breakdown of the TA budget:
Office
of the Under Secretary |
$4.2
million |
The
mission of the Technology Administration is to maximize
technology’s contribution to America’s economic
growth. The Under Secretary leads the development of national
policies and initiatives that enable technology to best contribute
to America’s competitiveness. The funding in the President’s
budget proposal will be used to support the agency’s
work with the private sector to maximize technology’s
impact on economic growth, job creation, homeland security
and education. The Department will propose legislation to
modernize the Department’s technology agencies in response
to the converging technology marketplace and policy interests.
National
Institute of Standards and Technology |
$532
million |
The TA/NIST budget is divided into three appropriations:
- $426.3
million for Scientific and Technical Research and Services
(STRS)—an increase of 12.5 percent over
2005. It includes $420.6 million for the NIST laboratories,
technical programs and major user facilities that provide
U.S. industry and the science/technology community with the
measurement capabilities, standards, evaluated reference
data and test methods needed to support innovation and improve
quality in virtually all technology-intensive sectors; and
$5.7 million for the Baldrige National Quality Program.
The
STRS budget request includes three research initiatives
that target pressing national priorities:
|
An
increase of $19.6 million to support a multifaceted
program on Advances in Manufacturing, with components
addressing nanomanufacturing (+$4 million), efficient
manufacturing enterprise integration (+$1.6 million),
and a program to expand U.S. access to global markets
through improved measurements and standards (+$4 million).
A key part of the initiative is the establishment of
a national nanomanufacturing and nanometrology facility
at NIST (+$10 million). |
|
An
increase of $3 million for an expanded program in Measurements
and Standards for Homeland Security focusing on improved
safety standards and guidelines for building codes
and for equipment for emergency first responders (+$2
million), and improved biometrics for personal identification
(+$1 million). |
|
An
increase of $17.2 million for New Measurement
Horizons for the U.S. Economy and Science, to improve the nation’s
fundamental measurement capabilities in three key areas:
biosystems and health (+$7.2 million), interoperability
and security for complex scientific systems (+$2 million),
and quantum computing (+$4 million), as well as an
expansion of the NIST Competence Program to foster
new measurement capabilities needed in developing areas
of science and technology (+$4 million). |
- $46.8
million for Industrial Technology Services
(ITS), funding the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Program, helping small manufacturers across
the nation
to become more competitive and productive.
Consistent with efforts
to shift resources to best meet national needs,
the FY 2006 budget proposes termination of the Advanced
Technology
Program.
- $58.9
million for Construction of Research Facilities
(CRF), covering critical safety, maintenance, repair
and
facilities upgrades. The CRF budget includes
two important initiatives:
|
An
increase of $32 million to address pressing issues
of facility modernization primarily at the NIST Boulder
Labs that are impairing NIST’s ability to deliver
critical measurement services in several areas, including
time and frequency standards. This budget also will
increase the NIST annual safety, capacity, maintenance
and major repairs budget for Gaithersburg, Md., and
Boulder, Colo., to avoid continual costly deterioration
and obsolescence issues. |
|
An
increase of $3.4 million to support necessary preventive
maintenance for NIST’s Advanced Measurement Laboratory,
one of the world’s most sophisticated laboratories
and a valuable national resource for critical measurements
in nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum computing
and other exacting fields. |
National
Technical Information Service |
(fee
supported) |
NTIS is a repository
of much of the government’s technical
information that is used by the science and technical communities.
NTIS maintains, sells and distributes a collection of scientific
and technical information from various federal agencies.
NTIS covers its operating costs through fees for its products
and services; in keeping with past practice, there is no
FY 2006 appropriation request for the function.
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|