NEWS OF THE WEEK

FISCAL '91 SCIENCE BUDGET: Deficit could force sharp funding cuts

The Office of Management & Bud­get gazed darkly into its fiscal 1991 crystal ball last week and saw 9000 fewer Public Health Service-sup­ported research grants and a cut of over 4200 in the number of scien­tists receiving federal research train­ing assistance from PHS. It saw the governmentwide research initiative on global climate change and work on the Superconducting Super Col­lider grinding to a halt.

And it saw a crippled National Science Foundat ion terminat ing support for some 28,000 individuals, and deferring or terminating all new initiatives and many existing programs—including science and technology centers, engineering re­search centers, precollege education programs, and graduate fellowships.

This bleak picture could become reality if the White House and Con­gress don't agree on a way to cut the fiscal 1991 deficit that OMB now es­

timates at almost $169 billion. In January OMB predicted that the def­icit wouldn't exceed the mandatory target of $64 billion set in the Bal­anced Budget & Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, known as Gramm-Rudman-Hollings.

Budget negotiations between the White House and Congress, aimed at finding a mutually acceptable way to meet the deficit target, en­tered their third month last week. They have agreed so far, according to OMB, on the need for entitlement and mandatory program reform, tax revenue increases, growth incen­tives, discretionary spending reduc­tion, orderly reductions in defense expenditures, and budget process re­form. But they have not agreed on how to achieve any of these goals. The OMB report seems designed to prod them into action.

However, if nothing happens to change OMB's current estimates or

U.S. chemistry olympiad team posts best performance yet

Winning one gold and three silver med­als, the four-member U.S. team at the just-ended International Chemistry Olympiad in Paris placed fourth among the 28 nations participating—the best ever showing for the U.S. in its six years of competition. Sponsored by the American Chemical Society, the team brought together four of the top chem­istry students in the U.S.

A gold medal went to Wayne Whit­ney of Medfield (Mass.) High School for placing sixth out of 111 students. The silver medals were won by Marc Di-onne of La Jolla (Calif.) High School; Roger Moore of Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, Colo.; and Steve Gubser of Cherry Creek High School, Englewood, Colo. They placed 30th, 31st, and 32nd, respectively.

For the first time, this year's top in­dividual medalist was a female. She and the second-place medalist were both from China. A student from West Germany gained third place. China won first place in the country ranking, with Poland finishing second and West Ger­many third. Gold medals went to the first 13 contestants, silver to the next 21, bronze to the next 33, and diplomas of recognition to the rest.

The U.S. team's performance this year in the olympiad, which consists of a series of written exams and laborato­ry work, was a rebound from that of last year, when three of the four team members won bronze medals. In 1988, the team had won three silvers and a bronze. The only other gold medal for the U.S. was won in 1986.

the law itself, Gramm-Rudman re­quires the President to issue, on Aug. 25, an initial sequester order. This would direct each agency to plan for across-the-board cuts of 38% in nondefense programs (exempting Social Security and some other pro­grams), and of 25% or 41% in de­fense p rograms , d e p e n d i n g on whe the r mili tary personnel ac­counts are exempted. The cuts are made from the Gramm-Rudman basel ine, which is current-year funding plus an adjustment for in­flation. The order would take effect on Oct. 1—the start of the govern­ment's fiscal year.

OMB's new deficit figures came as no surprise. The Congressional Bud­get Office has been saying for months that the deficit was worse than the Administration would ad­mit. But almost no one expects that such draconian measures will really be implemented.

However, that was the conven­tional wisdom last year when the first sequester order since 1986 was issued (C&EN, Oct. 23,1989, page 5). That order, requiring across-the-board cuts of 5.3% in nondefense and 4.3% in defense programs, was necessitated by the inability of Con­gress and the Administration to agree on how to find the $16 bil­lion—a paltry sum compared with this year—needed to meet the 1990 deficit target of $100 billion. The or­der was eventually rescinded, but agency budgets were cut about 2%.

The easiest way out of the budget dilemma, and probably the most likely outcome, is to reduce the def­icit some $50 billion through some combination of budget cuts and in­creased tax revenues, and then sim­ply to change the law and increase the deficit reduction target for 1991 to around $150 billion.

Janice Long

4 July 23, 1990 C&EN