Where do they stand on the 2008/09 science budget?

Nearly all the remaining presidential candidates agree that the U.S. should continue to invest in energy and basic science research. Hillary Clinton provided the most detailed proposals, with Barack Obama a close second now that John Edwards is out of the race. The two main republican candidates, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, do not have specific proposals but they do support increased funding for energy research and education.

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are still in the Senate and may vote on the 2009 science budget before the campaign is over.

The 2008 budget turned into a disaster for science, particularly for high energy physics for which funding of the international linear collider and the international thermonuclear experimental reactor were effectively zeroed out. In response, Fermilab and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center had to curtail experiments early, cut staff and in some cases, ask their employees to take two days of unpaid furlough each month.

The cuts in the 2008 budget came about because Congress and the White House disagreed over how to pay for tax cuts and government services in an era of rising deficits.

In the 2009 budget the Office of Science at the Department of Energy, which funds Fermilab, would receive an 18% increase from $3.97 billion to $4.72 billion. The National Science Foundation would receive a 14 percent increase to $6.85 billion, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology would receive a 22 percent increase to $634 million.

Last year both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama abstained from voting on the 2008 science budget. John McCain voted against it.

If the candidates want to support increased science funding, they can support the 2009 budget or, if Congress decides to delay passing the budget, call for supplemental spending bills that increase research funds above their 2008 level.