President Trump on Monday
called for cutting spending at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
government's top funder of nonmedical research, by about $1 billion. The
White House's fiscal 2020 budget
proposal recommends lowering NSF's budget to $7.1 billion, from its
current level of $8.1 billion.

The
12 percent decline would exceed the single-digit reduction to
overall nondiscretionary
funding in the president's budget request to Congress. The NSF
provides about one-quarter of all federal research grants and covers fields
such as engineering, mathematics, computer science and social sciences. It also
funds the purchase of large-scale scientific equipment.

According
to the NSF website, foundation-funded researchers have gone on to win 236 Nobel
Prizes.
Trump's
2020 budget proposal also calls for dramatically reducing funding for
education, agriculture, health programs, transportation and the State
Department. Congress has largely ignored Trump's previous requests for deep
discretionary budget cuts and has steadily increased NSF funding levels in
recent years. This year’s battle will begin in earnest this week, as spending panels in both the Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to begin to review the president’s request.
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