March 2022

On March 28, President Biden released the administration’s budget proposal for FY 2023. The request comes shortly after the enactment of the FY 2022 appropriations legislation was signed earlier this month and therefore does not account for some of the program increases that were in the final omnibus package.

Institute of Education Sciences

As published in the budget materials, which set the base amount for FY 2022 estimated funding at FY 2021 levels, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) would see a decrease compared to the final FY 2022 omnibus number of $737.02 million. The FY 2023 number does not account for the increases to Research, Development, and Dissemination; Research in Special Education; or the Regional Educational Laboratories that were in the final FY 2022 omnibus, or a shift of Program Administration funds from the overall Department of Education to IES. The following chart notes the request for IES:

Institute of Education Sciences (in millions)
	FY 2021 Omnibus*	FY 2022 Omnibus	FY 2023 Budget Request	FY 2023 Request v. FY 2022 ($)	FY 2023 Request v. FY 2022 (%)
Institute of Education Sciences	$642.5	$737.0	$662.5	-$74.5	-10.1%
Research, Development and Dissemination	$197.9	$204.9	$197.9	-$7.0	-3.4%
Regional Educational Laboratories	$57.0	$58.7	$57.0	-$1.7	-2.9%
Statistics	$111.5	$111.5	$111.5	$0.0	0.0%
Assessment	$172.8	$187.8	$192.8	$5.1	2.7%
Statewide Data Systems	$33.5	$33.5	$33.5	$0.0	0.0%
Special Education Studies and Evaluations	$11.3	$13.3	$11.3	-$2.0	-15.2%
Research in Special Education	$58.5	$60.3	$58.5	-$1.8	-2.9%
Total Minus Program Administration	$642.5	$669.9	$662.5	-$7.4	-1.1%
Program Administration (starting FY 2022)		$67.1	$0.0	-$67.1	-100.0%

The congressional justification for IES included proposals for reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act. The recommendations included:

• Modify the mission statement of the National Center for Education Research (NCER) to emphasize the need for research on all learners, clarify the role of NCER in higher education, expand NCER’s long-time focus on diversity, and reduce education opportunity and outcome gaps among underserved student groups.
• Remove the requirement of numbers and topics in proposals for research and development (R&D) centers.
• Strengthen provisions related to the credibility of the research, including efforts to solicit various points of view within the scientific community, especially from individuals from groups that have been underrepresented in the education sciences.
• Remove inconsistent language related to “general duties” across the Centers, clarifying that the responsibility to manage and carry out the mission of IES lies principally with the director, including budget and award responsibilities.
• Strengthen scientific integrity provisions.

National Science Foundation

The FY 2023 budget request includes $10.5 billion for the National Science Foundation.

Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities (R&RA) line item would receive $8.45 billion, an 18 percent increase over the $7.16 billion included in the FY 2022 omnibus.

The request also includes a proposed rename of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) to “Directorate for STEM Education,” with the acronym EDU,  and the renaming of the Division of Human Resources Development to “Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM” (EES). These proposals were first noted in the spring 2021 EHR Advisory Committee meeting.

The FY 2023 request includes $1.38 billion for EDU, a 37 percent increase over the FY 22 omnibus. This accounts for a proposal first noted in the FY 2022 budget request to consolidate all of the funding for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) within EHR. The EDU Directorate also plans to continue funding the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship within the Division of Graduate Education, which had been piloted using funding from the American Rescue Plan.

National Science Foundation (in millions)

	FY 2021 Final*	FY 2022 Omnibus	FY 2023 Budget Request	FY 2022 Request v. FY 2023 ($)	FY 2022 Request v. FY 2023 (%)
National Science Foundation	$8,486.8	$8,838.0	$10,492.1	$1,654.1	18.72%
Education and Human Resources / STEM Education	$968.0	$1,006.0	$1,377.2	$3,71.2	36.90%
Research and Related Activities	$6,909.8	$7,159.4	$8,453.0	$1,293.6	18.07%

 

National Institutes of Health

The FY 2023 request includes $62.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), representing a $17.5 billion or 39 percent increase over the FY 2022 omnibus. Of this funding $12 billion would be for mandatory spending to prepare for future pandemics, and an additional $5 billion would be for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Within NIH, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) would receive $1.67 billion under this proposal, which is a slight decline compared to the FY 2022 omnibus.

National Institutes of Health (in billions)

	FY 2021 Final	FY 2022 Omnibus	FY 2023 Budget Request	FY 2022 Request v. FY 2023 ($)	FY 2022 Request v. FY 2023 (%)
National Institutes of Health	$42.93	$44.96	$62.50	$17.54	39.02%
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development	$1.59	$1.68	$1.67	-$0.01	-0.53%

With the budget request now out, the House and Senate will begin taking action to put together appropriations legislation for FY 2023, which begins on October 1.