Note: Includes National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Forest Service. 1995 their removal-and seeks future-year funding at levels that would complete dam removal and river restoration. Multilateral and Bilateral and Bilateral Environmental Assistance: The budget proposes $314 million, 19 percent more than in 1997, for bilateral and multilateral environment assistance. Bilateral assistance includes Agency for International Development activities to address climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Multilateral assistance funds U.S. voluntary contributions to the U.N. environment system and other international organizations to address various international environmental activities. Global Environment Facility (GEF): U.S. participation in the GEF is a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy on the environment. The GEF has become the world's leading institution for protecting the global environment and avoiding economic disruption from climate change, massive extinction of valuable species, and dramatic collapse of the oceans' fish population. The $100 million budget proposal would meet the 1998 portion of the U.S. pledge to the GEF's four-year (1995-1998) funding program, and doing so is vital to maintaining U.S. leadership of the program. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: The budget proposes $688 million for energy conservation and efficiency programs, and $330 million for solar and renewable energy programs, increases of 25 percent and 22 percent, respectively. These Energy Department (DOE) programs reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants by increasing energy efficiency and expanding the use of non-fossil-based energy sources. The energy conservation programs include both near-term efforts to demonstrate and promote the best available technologies, and longer-term efforts to develop breakthrough technologies and products. A prominent example of the latter is the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a joint government-industry effort to develop cars with triple the fuel economy of today's models. The solar and renewable energy research and development activities include substantial support for reducing the costs of photovoltaics, wind energy, and biofuels. Federal Facilities Cleanup and Compliance: The Federal Government continues to face an enormous challenge in cleaning up Federal facilities contaminated with radioactive or hazardous waste. DOE faces the most complex and costly problems from over 40 years of research, production, and testing of nuclear weapons. The Defense Department's (DOD) problems include hazardous wastes similar to those found at industrial and commercial sites. The budget proposes over $7.2 billion for DOE's Environmental Management program, 20 percent more than in 1997, including over $1 billion to implement a privatization strategy to cut costs and speed cleanup and waste disposal. In 1998, DOE will acceler ate the Formerly Used Sites Remedial Actions Program (FUSRAP), which is cleaning up private properties contaminated during the weapons production process in order to allow their speedier return to productive use. By the end of 1998, DOE will complete cleanup at 28 of 46 FUSRAP sites and 44 of 86 other DOE sites and facilities. DOD, which operates one of the Nation's most diverse and successful environmental programs, is focusing its cleanup efforts on reducing relative risk at its active and closing installations. It is conducting studies or cleanups at 15,240 sites on 770 military installations and 2,641 formerly-used properties. Moreover, it has determined that 10,970 other sites require no further action. DOD also is making real progress in its compliance/ pollution prevention, conservation, and environmental technology programs. The budget proposes over $4.7 billion for all DOD environmental activities, three percent more than in 1997. 4. PROMOTING RESEARCH We must harness the remarkable forces of science and technology that are remaking our world. ... We can make this age of science and technology a true age of possibility for all the American people, but we must invest in it and do it wisely if we expect to get a return. President Clinton December 11, 1996 Technological innovation has accounted for at least half of the Nation's productivity growth in the last 50 years. We enjoy the fruits of this innovation every day in the many technologies that we have come to depend on for our way of life-including lasers, computers, x-rays, teflon, weather and communication satellites, jet aircraft, microwave ovens, solar-electric cells, human insulin, and a plethora of pharmaceutical products. These advances have generated millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs and significantly improved the quality of life for Americans. Because our investments in science and technology (S&T) have paid such rich dividends, U.S. leadership in S&T is a cornerstone of the President's vision for America. Thus, the budget continues these vital S&T investments-investments that contribute significantly to many of the Administration's broader goals, including creating new knowledge, training our workers, creating new jobs and industries, solving our many health challenges, enhancing our ability to address environmental issues, improving our ability to teach our children, and maintaining a strong, capable national defense. Specifically, the budget adds funds for basic research in health sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for basic research and education at the National Science Foundation (NSF), for research at other agencies that depend on S&T for their missions, and for cooperative projects with industry and universities. As the President has said, we need to balance the budget in a way that boosts economic growth and encourages public and private investment in innovative S&T. The budget continues the record of S&T investment that has helped to keep the economy strong over the last four years. The Federal Role in S&T The post-Cold War era is one of intense global economic competition. The United States also faces new national security challenges, including the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons, regional conflicts, threats from environmental degradation, and emerging infectious diseases. Thus, the Federal Government has an indispensable role to play in investing in S&Ta role critical to the country's economy, national security, environment, health, and other social needs. This is especially true when the risk is too great for individual companies to make the needed investment, or when the public benefit is large but private return is small. Our Nation also must support a balanced mix of S&T investments (i.e., basic research, applied research, and technology development), because the steps involved in scientific discovery and technological innovation are so profoundly interwoven. The Administration has initiated or expanded public-private partnerships to spur innovations with broad economic impact. These partnerships have traditionally served our Nation well, not only in building transportation infrastructure (e.g., highways, airways, harbors, and railroads), but in nurturing new types of technological infrastructure (e.g., the Internet, global positioning satellites, and environmental monitoring systems). They also |