Those upset that President George W. Bush proposed only a 2.4% increase in the 2006 budget for the National Science Foundation now have reason to believe NSF's new director, Arden Bement, is on their side. But don't ask him to talk about it.
Appearing 11 March before a House spending panel that handles NSF's budget, Bement was asked how much the agency requested last fall in its 2006 budget submission to the White House. Most officials duck the commonly asked question, but Bement, known for his straight talk, decided to answer. "To my best recollection it was 15%," he replied, a figure in keeping with an NSF authorization passed 3 years ago that would have doubled NSF's budget over 5 years. The agency actually submits "several scenarios," he told the panel, and this year the final request wound up "somewhere between the median and the low end."
Asked later for details, however, Bement told Science that the number "was based on a fuzzy memory." He declined to give the actual figure, citing "predecisional" negotiations with the Administration.
