US President Barack Obama outlined his budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 on Monday, reports The New York Times. Obama says that his budget plan will reduce the projected budget deficit over the next 10 years by about 10 percent while investing in education, infrastructure, and research. "Republicans rejected Mr. Obama's talk of budgetary investments, calling them runaway spending by another name," the Times says, adding that Republicans likely won't have a 2012 budget plan until April. In addition, a budget for fiscal year 2011 has not yet been set.
In this proposed budget for 2012, Obama would allocate $31.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health, which is up 2.4 percent from 2010 levels and would be keeping pace with inflation. The National Science Foundation's budget would rise 13 percent to $7.8 billion. Finally, the Office of Science at the Department of Energy would be receiving $5.4 billion. "All of these investments are being made in the context of a tough love budget," said John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to Insider Higher Ed.
Our sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News has more on the budget proposal here.