Dollars for Antiterrorism R&D

Tracy Staedterarchive page

March 1, 2003

The attacks of September 11, 2001, prompted calls for large increases in government spending on counterterrorism research. Apparently, Congress and the Bush administration were listening. The three agencies listed here are slated for the biggest boosts in research and development funding in fiscal year 2003, with much of the new money going toward better technology for thwarting and responding to terrorist attacks.

Of the three, the Department of Defense comes out on top. It will see an additional $9.1 billion appropriated for R&D over last year’s $49.6 billion. The 18.4 percent increase is the largest the department has ever seen.

R&D Budget (in millions of dollars)
Department	FY 2002 Budget Estimate	FY 2003 President Bush’s requested budget	FY 2003 Senate approved budget	FY 2003 House approved budget
Defense	49,616	54,460	58,764	58,764
Health and Human Services	23,950	27,385	27,578	NA³
Homeland Security	0	799²	NA³	NA³
1. Appropriations signed into law on October 23, 2002. 2. Estimated by American Association for the Advancement of Science. 3. Not available: at press time, Congress had not passed final appropriations bills for these agencies. SOURCE: American Association for the Advancement of Science.