This week we take a look at the Trump administration's proposed $54 billion increase in defense spending, NDD United's letter to Congress (which SSTI signed), and testimony in favor of TBED funding.

The White House released a budget this week that would substantially reduce federal spending for innovation and entrepreneurship. Regional Innovation Strategies and the entire Economic Development Administration, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, Innovative Technology and Advanced Vehicles loan programs, Growth Accelerator Program and Regional Innovation Clusters would all be eliminated.

Both the House and Senate are beginning the appropriations process for FY 2019 this month, and early indicators suggest that EDA’s Regional Innovation Strategies program could see an increase over its $21 million for FY 2018.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations this morning advanced a funding bill that includes $25 million for Regional Innovation Strategies — $4 million more than the current funding round.

A progress report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) provides a useful overview of the Obama administration’s ongoing STEM efforts and the roster of STEM initiatives included in the president’s FY15 budget request. Under the proposed budget, federal spending on STEM education would reach $2.9 billion in FY15, a 3.7 percent increase over FY14 funding as enacted.

When SSTI learned that the House commerce appropriations subcommittee’s draft FY 2018 bill did not specifically fund the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program, we called on members to contact the full committee and ask that the bill designate funding for RIS. Thanks to the quick action of SSTI members, the House Appropriations Committee passed the bill last week with level RIS funding of $17 million for FY 2018.

Over the past week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations has passed bills to fund commerce and science, transportation, energy and water and agriculture. Regional Innovation Strategies would be funded at $21 million, an increase of $4 million over FY 2017. Other innovation proposals received mixed support, as the Senate cut $3.2 billion from commerce, justice and science funding and another $400 million from agriculture.

The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a letter directing all agency heads to prepare FY 2019 budget requests with the figures provided in the administration’s FY 2018 request.

The House Appropriations Committee began releasing FY 2018 “markup” budget bills this week, and the proposals would cut billions in non-defense spending. EDA would lose $100 million* in funding, SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs would lose $34 million, NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership would lose $30 million, and Energy’s ARPA-E would be eliminated, among other cuts.

Senate Appropriations subcommittees have advanced the remaining FY 2018 departmental budgets: Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, and

Recent memoranda issued by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology policy include the support of lab-to-market technology commercialization as a key pillar of cross-agency spending for the upcoming fiscal year.  The White House instructs agencies to explain how resources are being redirected from low priority efforts to multi-agency collaborations in specific fields, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, earth observation, global climate change, information technology, life sciences, homeland security and research policy-making.

Australian Minster Tony Abbott announced a $400 million AUD (approximately $352M USD) national Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda focused on building the country’s innovation economy, supporting apprenticeship and workforce programs that address the needs of industry, and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.  The centerpiece of the agenda is a $188 million AUD (approximately $165.5M USD) initiative to create industry growth cente

In the immediate aftermath of the FY 2018 federal budget deal’s announcement, SSTI covered the increased funding for a few key programs, including Regional Innovation Strategies ($21 million) and the National Science Foundation ($7.5 billion). Today we reveal our full analysis covering several new funding line items and substantial funding increases for regional innovation organizations to consider.

With final passage and signage pending at the time of publication, the federal budget for FY 2018 provides relatively strong support for innovation economies. The Regional Innovation Strategies program is funded at $21 million, MEP at $140 million and the National Science Foundation at $7.8 billion, increases for all organizations. Other notable innovation programs receiving at least level funding are SBA’s cluster and accelerator programs, DOE’s ARPA-E, NASA science and the National Institutes of Health.

Yesterday, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill that includes $11 million in funding for the Regional Innovation Program.  This action marks the first time the House bill has included funding for the program. The Regional Innovation Program is SSTI’s top legislative priority. SSTI thanks all who have expressed support for the program. The Digest will report more when the full House acts and the Senate proposal is released.

Included in the continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill for FY15 is $10 million for the Regional Innovation program. The Regional Innovation Program was authorized under the American COMPETES Act and is designed to provide funding to support regional innovation activities. The program received its first funding of $10 million in FY14 after extensive work on the Hill by SSTI, its members and others.

This week, President Obama signed off on the continuing resolution omnibus spending package that will keep the federal government open for another nine months (see last week’s analysis).The spending bill provides stable funding for R&D and most research agencies, according to analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The Trump administration released its FY 2021 budget this week. As with the past three iterations, Congress is unlikely to consider the proposal, which would cut domestic spending by 20 percent over a decade. Nonetheless, a quick review of the White House’s budget reveals the administration’s priorities: EDA, ARPA-E and MEP would be eliminated; total R&D would be cut by nine percent while dramatically increasing funding for AI and quantum information science; loan programs at USDA and SBA would see funding cuts made up through increasing user fees; and, technical education would see a boost through both investments in high school programs and apprenticeship initiatives.

The final FY 2021 budget provides $1.4 trillion in total federal funding, including increases in some programs affecting the innovation economy. Among SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council priorities: EDA’s Build to Scale received an appropriation of $38 million, SBA’s Regional Innovation Clusters received $6 million, and SBA’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) program received $4 million. These are just a few of the federally-funded initiatives that support regional innovation economies and a wide range of federal R&D activities.

As the partial government shutdown enters its second month, the impacts across America are increasingly disruptive. The agencies that do not have a current budget were appropriated more than $38.9 billion for R&D, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, broadband, science, economic development and other activities related to regional innovation economies in FY 2018.

The U.S. Senate advanced multiple FY 2020 bills through the appropriations committee in the past week, including the budgets for EDA, NIST, SBA, and NSF. Among the highlights include $31 million for the Regional Innovation program at EDA, a robust increase over FY 2019’s $23.5 million. While the Senate continues to work through this appropriations process, the chamber is also considering a resolution to continue funding the government from the end of the current fiscal year, Sept. 30, through Nov. 21.

The 116^th Congress has already advanced policies to affect regional innovation economies, and much more is poised to happen once both chambers return in September. In addition to completing the FY 2019 budget (see our Feb. coverage), this session has seen Regional Innovation Strategies legislation pass the House and Senate (albeit in different bills); the Senate working toward an overhaul of the Small Business Administration; and, the start of the FY 2020 budget process.

Congress is expected to pass the FY 2020 budget this week, and as anticipated, the bills include billions in new appropriations. Innovation policy priorities, such as Regional Innovation Strategies, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and NSF, did well in the final budget. Here are the top things to know about innovation initiatives in the final budget.

1. Regional Innovation Strategies receives $33 million

Clinton is expected to sign an emergency spending bill later today that will keep the government in operation through next Friday, March 22. Without the bill, parts of the government would have shut down for the third time this fiscal year.

Almost halfway through federal FY 1996, nine government departments are operating on temporary spending authority. Agencies that are affected include the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NASA, and the National Science Foundation.

While Congress and the White House continue to try to resolve differences on the FY96 federal budget, the Clinton Administration has released its detailed budget proposal for FY97.

The FY97 budget proposal calls for increasing spending on R&D to $72.3 billion in FY97, up from $71.5 billion in FY96.

Programs of particular interest to the states by federal agency are:

Department of Commerce