The 111 th Congress continues to take a strong interest in the health of the U.S. research and development (R&D) enterprise and in providing sustained support for federal R&D activities. The United States government supports a broad range of scientific and engineering research and development. Its purposes include addressing specific concerns such as national defense, health, safety, the environment, and energy security; advancing knowledge generally; developing the scientific and engineering workforce; and strengthening U.S. innovation and competitiveness in the global economy. Most of the research funded by the federal government is in support of specific activities of the federal government as reflected in the unique missions of the funding agencies. The federal government has played an important role in supporting R&D efforts that have led to scientific breakthroughs and new technologies, from jet aircraft and the Internet to communications satellites and defenses against disease. In February 2008, President Bush requested $147.0 billion for R&D in FY2009, a 2.7% increase over FY2008 R&D funding which was estimated to be $143.1 billion. The FY2009 proposed R&D increase over the FY2008 funding level was due primarily to funding for the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and an advance appropriation to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for acquisition under Project BioShield of medical countermeasures, such as vaccines, against biological terror attacks. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classified $2.175 billion of the DHS advance appropriation as R&D facilities construction in FY2009. Some have questioned the appropriateness of classifying these funds as R&D facilities and equipment since the funds appear to be intended for product acquisition rather than research, development, or facilities construction. This advance appropriation accounted for more than half of the net increase in R&D funding in President Bush's FY2009 budget request. Analysis of federal R&D funding is complicated by several factors, including the Bush Administration's omission of Congressionally directed spending from the FY2009 budget request, inconsistency among agencies in the reporting of R&D, and the apparent mis-categorization of some funding in President Bush's request. As a result of these and other factors, the R&D agency figures reported by OMB (and shown in Table 1 ) may differ somewhat from those agency budget analyses that appear later in this report. Another complicating factor for FY2009 is the inclusion of funding for R&D, facilities, and equipment, and related activities in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ( P.L. 111-5 ) in addition to funding provided to agencies in P.L. 110-329 and P.L. 111-8 . The act includes approximately $22.7 billion for R&D, facilities, equipment and related activities. Federal R&D funding can be analyzed from a variety of perspectives that provide unique insights. The authorization and appropriations process views federal R&D funding primarily from agency and program perspectives. Table 1 provides data on R&D by agency for FY2007 (actual), FY2008 (estimate), and FY2009 (request) as reported by OMB. Under President Bush's FY2009 budget request, five federal agencies would have received 92.8% of total federal R&D funding: the Department of Defense (DOD), 54.8%; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (primarily the National Institutes of Health), 20.1%; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 7.3%; the Department of Energy (DOE), 7.2%; and the National Science Foundation (NSF), 3.5%. This report provides an analysis of the R&D budget requests for these agencies, as well as for the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Commerce (DOC), Homeland Security, Interior (DOI), and Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In total these departments and agencies accounted for more than 98% of current and requested federal R&D funding. The Bush Administration had requested significantly larger percentage increases for the three agencies that were part of its American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI): DOE's Office of Science (up 19% above the estimated FY2008 level), the National Science Foundation (up 14%), and DOC's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (up 5%). In 2007, Congress authorized substantial R&D increases for these agencies under the America COMPETES Act ( P.L. 110-69 ). , President Bush's budget would have reduced R&D funding for four agencies: the Department of Agriculture, down $357 million (-15.5%); the Department of Veterans Affairs, down $76 million (-7.9%); the Department of the Interior, down $59 million (-8.7%); and the Environmental Protection Agency, down $7 million (-1.3%). Federal R&D funding can also be examined by the character of work (basic research, applied research, and development) it supports, and funding provided for facilities and acquisition of R&D major equipment (see Table 2 ). President Bush's FY2009 request included $29.3 billion for basic research, up $847 million (3.0%) from FY2008; $27.1 billion for applied research, down $1.0 billion (-3.6%); $84.0 billion for development, up $1.6 billion (1.9%); and $6.5 billion for facilities and equipment, up $2.5 billion (61.7%). Combining these perspectives, federal R&D funding can be viewed in terms of each agency's contribution to basic research, applied research, development, and facilities and equipment (see Table 3 ). The federal government is the nation's largest supporter of basic research (funding an estimated 58.8% of U.S. basic research in 2006), primarily because the private sector asserts it cannot capture an adequate return on long-term fundamental research investments. The Department of Health and Human Services (primarily HHS's National Institutes of Health (NIH)) accounts for more than half of all federal funding for basic research. In contrast to basic research, industry is the primary funder of applied research in the United States, accounting for an estimated 58.9% in 2006, while the federal government accounted for an estimated 33.3%. Among federal agencies, HHS is the largest funder of applied research, accounting for nearly half of all federally funded applied research. Industry also provides the vast majority of funding for development, accounting for an estimated 82.5% in 2006, while the federal government provided an estimated 16.2%. DOD is the primary federal agency development funder, accounting for 88.5% of total federal development funding in the FY2009 request. Federal R&D funding can also be viewed in terms of multi-agency efforts, such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative (see "Multiagency R&D Initiatives" section), and other initiatives, such as the Bush Administration's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). Similarly, President Obama has stated that he will seek to double funding for basic research over 10 years. The ACI was proposed by President Bush in February 2006 as a response to growing concerns about America's ability to compete in the global marketplace. The $136 billion ACI proposal included $50 billion for additional research, science education, and the modernization of research infrastructure from FY2007 through FY2016. These funds were intended to double physical sciences and engineering research in three agencies—NSF, DOE's Office of Science, and NIST—over ten years. Congress established authorization levels for FY2008-2010 in the America COMPETES Act that would put funding for research at these agencies on track to double in approximately seven years. However, FY2008 research funding provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ( P.L. 110-161 ) for these agencies fell below these doubling targets. Estimated FY2008 funding for ACI research totaled $10.61 billion, an increase of approximately $350 million (3.5%) over the FY2007 ACI funding level. For FY2009, President Bush requested $12.21 billion in funding for ACI research at NSF, DOE's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (including its core research program and facilities), an increase of $1.6 billion (15.1%) above the estimated FY2008 level of $10.61 billion. The NSF funding request for FY2009 was $6.85 billion, an increase of $821 million (13.6%) above the estimated FY2008 level of $6.03 billion. The FY2009 request for the DOE Office of Science was $4.72 billion, $749 million (18.9%) more than the estimated FY2008 level of $3.97 billion. FY2009 proposed funding for NIST's core research program and facilities totaled $634 million, an increase of $33 million (4.5%) above the estimated FY2008 level of $610 million. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ( P.L. 111-5 ) includes funding for each of the three ACI agencies totaling approximately $5.2 billion (in addition to the enacted levels in P.L. 110-329 ) (see Table 4 ). On September 30, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2638 (110 th Congress), the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009 ( P.L. 110-329 ). This act provides FY2009 appropriations for the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, as well as supplemental funding for disaster relief.