Congress Alarmed over Innovation Rinding.

• Author: Carberry, Sean
• Position: Budget Matters

As National Defense reported in this column last month, the Defense Department's fiscal year 2023 budget request includes significant increases in science-and-technology funding over the previous year's request. But members indicated in a May 12 hearing that they are not satisfied with the proposed budget, which is less than what Congress ultimately authorized for 2022 spending.

The 2023 request includes $130 billion for research, development, test and evaluation, $16.5 billion for science-and-technology and $2.4 billion for basic research. While those amounts are well in excess of the 2022 proposed budget, the science-and-technology request is 13 percent less than the $18.8 billion Congress authorized for 2022, and the basic research request comes in 14 percent less than the $2.6 billion authorized for 2022.

The fact that Congress usually ends up giving a raise to innovation in its defense budget was at the center of the first line of questioning by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., during a House Armed Services subcommittee on cyber, innovative technologies and information hearing on innovation funding.

"You have significant budgets, but every year, we're having to add on," Langevin said when questioning Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, about why--from Congress's perspective--the defense budget chronically underfunds innovation.

"There is always greater demand than there is supply side," she said.

"You've got to realize all the areas that we encompass covers from emerging technology, from biotechnology, advanced materials, areas in quantum science, all the way to more mature technology, which we're trying to field in the area of hypersonics," she added. "So, our requests are vast. Part of the reason [is] because we cover a wide span of different technology areas."

Langevin noted that the budget request left gaps that Congress and the defense department are going to have to work together to close. Part of the problem is the Defense Department's risk-averse culture when it comes to innovation, Langevin stated in an email.

"Robust funding for science-and-technology efforts is critical to driving innovation within the Department of Defense," he said. "Taking risks and making investments in our [science-and-technology] communities allows us to get crucial technologies into the hands of the warfighter, where they are needed the most."

Similarly, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., asked how the department was demonstrating...