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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 25: February 13, 2003

FY 2004 Budget Requests: USGS; NIBIB

This FYI examines the FY 2004 budget requests for the U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering (NIBIB) at NIH.  Because the final FY 2003 omnibus
appropriations bill has not yet been enacted, in the analyses below, 
the FY 2004 requests have been compared to both the FY 2002 
appropriations and the FY 2003 requests.

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

The total FY 2004 request for the U.S. Geological Survey is $895.5 
 million.  This represents a decrease of 2.0% from the FY 2002 
appropriation of $913.9 million, but an increase of 3.2% over the FY 
2003 requested level of $867.3 million.

A USGS News Release states that "the 2004 budget focuses resources on 
core USGS programs, such as water resources, hazards, biology and 
those programs that directly support science-based land and natural 
resource management."  Biological programs, science support and 
facilities would be increased over both the FY 2002 funding levels and 
the FY 2003 request.  Water resource programs would drop below the FY 
2002 funding level but remain above the FY 2003 request, while funding 
levels for mapping and remote sensing, and for geological hazards and 
resources, would experience a decrease from both the FY 2002 
appropriation and the FY 2003 request.

Highlights of the FY 2004 budget request, according to USGS, include 
an increase of $3 million "for enhanced science support" to meet 
Interior Department priorities such as restoring degraded habitats, 
and a $2.3 million increase for the National Biological Information 
Infrastructure.  Also highlighted are a $3.0 million increase "to 
expand invasive species research and begin developing a prototype 
model for a national early detection network," and a $1.0 million 
increase to address the threat to deer and elk caused by Chronic 
Wasting Disease.

The budget request for each of the survey's six components follows, 
with explanatory quotes from USGS budget documents when available.  
Additional information on the USGS budget request can be found at
http://www.usgs.gov/budget/2004/ .

 -  Mapping, Remote Sensing, and Geographic Investigations: $120.5 
million; down 9.5% from the FY 2002 appropriation; down 6.8% from the 
FY 2003 request.  "A core program of the USGS is its mapping 
activities.  Included in the FY 2004 budget is an increase of $3.0 
million for America View for better public access to remotely sensed 
data, and $0.8 million for the Urban Dynamics Program to better 
understand urbanization and its impacts on the surrounding 
environment."

The budget materials also state that "The 2004 budget includes a 
reduction of $9.1 million for lower priority mineral assessments and 
$2.8 million for lower priority mapping research.  The National 
Mapping program includes a $4.4 million reduction associated with data 
collection activities for The National Map as the USGS moves away from 
doing actual data collection and dissemination to a role of making 
geospatial data and information easily accessible to the public and 
other decision-makers.  Additionally, a $1.4 million savings is 
reflected in the reduction due to the closure of the Center for 
Integration of Natural Disaster Information and transfers of its 
functions to other parts of the USGS."

 -  Geological Hazards, Resources, and Processes: $221.6 million; down 
4.7% from the FY 2002 appropriation; down 1.4% from the FY 2003 
request.

 -  Water Resources Investigations: $200.1 million; down 3.1% from the 
FY 2002 appropriation; up 12.5% from the FY 2003 request.  "The 2004 
budget proposes a total of $200.1 million to continue the valuable 
water resources work performed by the USGS.  This includes increases 
of $11.0 million for the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, $6.5 
million for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program and $1.8 
million for the National Water Information System."

 -  Biological Research: $168.9 million; up 1.6% from the FY 2002
appropriation; up 5.2% from the FY 2003 request.  A $2.3 million 
requested increase for the National Biological Information 
Infrastructure "will strengthen the resources of the existing 
California information node and initiate a mid-Atlantic node."

 -  Science Support: $91.5 million; up 6.2% from the FY 2002 
appropriation; up 6.3% from the FY 2003 request.

 -  Facilities: $93.0 million; up 3.9% from the FY 2002 appropriation; 
up 4.5% from the FY 2003 request.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOMEDICAL IMAGING AND BIOENGINEERING

The FY 2004 request for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging 
and Bioengineering  is $282.1 million.  This represents an increase of 
7.8% over the FY 2002 appropriation of $261.7 million, and an increase 
of 4.3% over the amended FY 2003 request of $270.5 million.  Both the 
FY 2002 and FY 2003 numbers reflect transfers to NIBIB from other 
institutions within NIH.

According to prior-year budget documents, the mission of the NIBIB is 
"to improve health by promoting fundamental discoveries, design and 
development, and translation and assessment of technological 
capabilities in biomedical imaging and bioengineering, enabled by 
relevant areas of physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, 
information science, and computer sciences....  The research promoted 
and supported by NIBIB will be multidisciplinary and strongly 
synergistic with the other NIH Institutes and Centers...as well as 
across government agencies."

Specific information on the NIBIB request does not appear to be 
currently available on the NIBIB web site, but readers might check the 
site at http://www.nibib1.nih.gov/about/about.htm  for future 
information.  The main NIH web site has general information on the FY 
2004 budget request at http://www.nih.gov/news/ but does not have 
specific explanatory language on the NIBIB budget request.

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Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org
(301) 209-3094
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