Bush budget would fund existing advanced technology projects

The fiscal 2002 budget request released by President Bush last week contains a request for $13 million for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), but the money would go toward only existing projects from previous years, officials said.

"The $13 million is what we are requesting in funding based on grants awarded but not part of last year's funding," said a Commerce Department spokesman.

The government must continue funding existing ATP projects and will carry over $66.9 million into fiscal 2002 from the previous year for that purpose, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has requested the funding. But that was $13 million short, so the difference is being sought in new money to reach a total of $79.9 million for next year, officials explained.

Under this year's budget request, overall funding for technology administration in the Commerce Department would total $496 million. But Bush suspended all new ATP project awards for fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2002, pending an evaluation of the program.

The parameters of the review are not yet clearly defined, the Commerce spokesman said, but it is expected to determine the veracity of projects and whether it is an effective way to promote scientific research and development. "The point of the review is to ensure [that the ATP] meets the goal of providing long-term assistance for research and development, as opposed to what some have characterized as corporate welfare," he said.

Kathleen Kingscott, director of public affairs for IBM, which has received government awards, called ATP "a very valuable program." She noted that the budget proposal is not the last word and that congressional appropriators could chart a different course.

Kingscott also rejected the notion that the program is a form of "corporate welfare." Rather, she said, it is a competitive program that accepts only 10 percent of applications in a peer-reviewed process that requires companies to invest a significant portion of the funds themselves.

ATP enables companies "to make long-term, high-risk, high-value investments that they wouldn't otherwise do," she said. Researchers need consistency to feel confident to try such projects, she noted, adding that interrupted funding does not create such consistency.

NIST described the study as ensuring that taxpayer dollars are being used to maximum effect "given the current opportunities for high-tech firms." Many of the programs listed on the official ATP Web site are related to medical and manufacturing technologies, among other things.

One industry lobbyist, whose firm does not utilize the program, said many in industry back funding for research and development in the university environment rather than in the company-specific way the ATP works. "There are just too many opportunities for changing the competitive landscape" when it is company specific, he said.