President’s 2002 Budget Request: An Overview for Tech-Based ED

The Bush Administration's first budget request offers a mixed bag for state, local, and non-profit practitioners and policymakers in tech-based economic development. In research categories, the budget reflects the Administration's research emphasis in defense, biotechnology, and life sciences. The budget also reorganizes the nation's energy research priorities. Most other research categories were held at FY 2001 funding levels or received modest increases or cuts. Most notable exceptions are the Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) which is slated for a two-year hiatus from funding new projects while the program is reviewed, and the industrial research programs in the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies. Some discussion of these shifts are presented below.



For economic development programs, the Administration's first budget presents a philosophical change with significant implications. Nearly every program that provides direct support to the private sector, either as loans or grants, experiences potential elimination or large reductions. The most notable examples are in the rural business programs of the Department of Agriculture and the loan and venture capital programs of the Small Business Administration. Much of the deep cut in the Economic Development Administration's Public Works grant program appears to be related more to maintaining progams within their authorization levels than a philosophical issue with the program's value.



The budget includes provisions to make the federal research and development tax credit permanent.