Tight Budget Proposed for 2005.

The article focuses on a $2.4 trillion 2005 budget, proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush that would hold spending essentially flat at many major science agencies. The president's blueprint calls for federal spending on research and development to rise 4.6%, to $132 billion, in the fiscal year that begins October 1, 2004. On a more positive note, the National Science Foundation's account for major new research facilities includes money to start building a high-energy physics experiment and a national ecological observatory network and to upgrade an ocean-drilling vessel. NASA's budget would increase 5.6% to $16.2 billion.