Washington
The $3.8-trillion budget President Obama proposed on Monday for the 2011 fiscal year contains increases for federal spending on education, including Pell Grants, and for research financed by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
The increases were proposed despite a net spending freeze on discretionary domestic spending that Mr. Obama announced in his State of the Union address last week.
The president's budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, would increase federal education spending by 6 percent in 2011 and raise the maximum Pell Grant to $5,710, from the current $5,550. He renewed a proposal he made a year ago to make the Pell Grant program a guaranteed entitlement for all low-income students. He also recommended that the maximum Pell Grant award automatically increase each year of the next decade by the rate of inflation plus one percentage point.
For nondefense research and development projects, the president proposed a $66-billion budget for 2011. That includes an increase of $1-billion for the National Institutes of Health. The total $32.1-billion proposed for the NIH, an increase of 3.2 percent over the current year, would be the largest increase for the agency in eight years, excluding the infusion of funds provided in last year's stimulus legislation.
The National Science Foundation would receive an 8-percent increase over the current year. The $7.4-billion budget proposed for the foundation is in line with Mr. Obama's previously stated goal of doubling by 2017 the research money for the NSF, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In-depth coverage, including articles and tables, with details about what the president has proposed spending on education and research will be posted later on The Chronicle's Web site.
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