(Based on material in The Hill) The the so-called skinny budget means dramatic changes that affect academics.
Russ Vought, a former aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence and John Gray, who previously worked for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are writing the new budget, Their document is expected to come out within 45 days of Trump taking office and reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, and the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.
The Minority Business Development Agency, the Economic Development Administration, the International Trade Administration and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The total savings from cutting these four programs would amount to nearly $900 million in 2017.
The budget offices of the various departments will have the chance to review the proposals, offer feedback and appeal for changes before the president’s budget goes to Congress.
At the Department of Energy, the budget would roll back funding for nuclear physics and advanced scientific computing research to 2008 levels, eliminate the Office of Electricity, eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and scrap the Office of Fossil Energy, which focuses on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Under the State Department’s, funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are candidates for elimination.
Other likely targets: NSF funding for social sciences and environment, Areas of basic science may come under threat from a less than well informed congress, Agricultural research related to sustainable crops. Transportation studies of mass transit. The Smithsonian and national parks.
The NIH is harder to predict but more funds invested in translational medicine and patrnerships with drug companies would be likely to create issues for basic science.