Last-minute cuts to the research budget have left US scientists nervous about future funding. David Goldston looks at what Congress and the president might do next. Trying to follow the actions of the US Congress on research spending in 2007 was like sitting blindfolded on a roller-coaster, and when the year ended in sudden free-fall, science lobbyists were shaken and stunned, and left wondering how they were taken for a ride. The year s victories — a supplemental spending bill in the spring that unexpectedly included additional science funding; legislation in the summer pledging to double research spending over 10 years; and spending bills in the autumn with long-sought increases for the physical sciences — proved to be no harbingers of a bounty for researchers when Congress finally completed its work in December. The final budget for research as a whole for fiscal year 2008 does not keep pace with inflation.
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