Office of Science & Technology - The Stimulus Plan 2009
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The Stimulus Plan 2009 Print E-mail
bridges vol. 21, April 2009 / Bills in Brief: US S&T Policy News


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President Obama signs ARRA into law as Vice President Joe Biden witnesses.
On February 17, 2009, US President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of  2009 (ARRA). ARRA, commonly known as the Stimulus Package, was signed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Denver, Colorado. While lacking bipartisanship - no Republican in the House of Representatives supported the bill, and only three centrist Republicans in the Senate joined 55 Democrats and 2 independents in favor - the $787 billion stimulus spending plan sends a clear message that investment in science will be one key to reviving the American economy.

 " ... This recovery act represents the biggest increase in basic research funding in the long history of America's noble endeavor to better understand our world," said Obama in his remarks prior to signing ARRA.  "And just as President Kennedy sparked an explosion of innovation when he set America's sights on the moon, I hope this investment will ignite our imagination once more, spurring new discoveries and breakthroughs in science, in medicine, in energy, to make our economy stronger and our nation more secure and our planet safer for our children."

Ten days later, on February 27, the US president also released his $3.55 trillion budget proposal for FY 2010. The House of Representatives and Senate are currently debating his proposal and are expected to approve slightly different, less expensive versions of Obama's budget plan for fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.

And only twelve days later, on March 11, Obama had to sign the $410 billion omnibus bill for FY 2009 - apparently not pleased with the abundance of earmarks it contained. The omnibus bill was necessary because Bush's FY 2009 budget had only been confirmed for three departments: the Departments of Defense (DoD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA). Because nine of the 12 appropriations bills remained unfinished, the federal agencies were temporarily operated under a continuing resolution (CR) at the level of FY 2008.

Between juggling those three budgets - the 2009 omnibus bill, the stimulus bill, and the FY 2010 budget proposal - Obama found time on March 9 to lift the eight-year-old federal funding restriction on stem-cell research (click here to read the Executive Order), an action strongly welcomed by the scientific community and worthy of mention.

But let's focus on the money: What's in the Stimulus Package for R&D?

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