As Congress resumed work in September, it was increasingly clear that it would once again fail to complete all of its budget work by the October 1 beginning of the new fiscal year. What was also clear is that increasing federal budget deficits and high-priority spending increases for homeland security and national defense are combining to squeeze the federal investment in virtually all other R&D areas. As of mid-September, Congress had made only halting progress on the federal R&D budgets, with the House drafting all 13 fiscal year (FY) 2005 bills and approving 11 of them. The Senate, meanwhile, had drafted only 4 of the 13 bills and completed action on only the Department of Defense (DOD) budget, which was signed into law in early September.
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