National Science Foundation chief defends proposed budget increase
The acting director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Thursday made excuses to House appropriators for the 3 percent NSF budget increase requested by the White House for fiscal 2005.
Picking up where his predecessor Rita Colwell finished, Arden Bement left the door open for Congress to boost the agency's budget as it has in past years.
"In light of the significant challenges that face the nation -- in security, defense and the economy -- NSF has, relatively speaking, fared well," Bement said in prepared remarks to the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NSF.
Bement called the proposed increase a "vote of confidence" in NSF but added that tight budgets have forced NSF "to set priorities and make informed choices in a sea of opportunity and constraint."
That is particularly difficult when "opportunities to make productive investments are as plentiful as they are today," he said.
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