Budget Boosts and Busts: R&D for Defense, NASA garner funding rise

The five-volume, 2,866-page budget proposal forwarded to Congress by President Bush on Feb. 3 contains a record-setting request for federal research and development. Together, NASA and the Department of Defense are slated to receive about 80 percent of the suggested increase in R&D funding. Other big winners in this year’s budget include the National Science Foundation and the newly established Department of Homeland Security.