H.R. 7178, the Research and Development Authorization Estimates Act

GAO believes that a multiple-year planning, authorization, and funding process approach to national policy areas such as science and technology can and should be fully consistent with agency plans and budgets, and should draw heavily on them. In its ongoing work on the roles of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in their support for research and development, GAO found that (1) OSTP put a high priority on its role in the budgetary process; (2) OMB depended upon and increased its use of the advice given by OSTP during various stages of budget formulation; and (3) NSF provided support to both executive offices, especially in the areas of analysis and reporting. Proposed legislation clarifies the relationship between the agencies by a general statement of function. GAO believes that the improvements made in the analysis and decisionmaking process for research and development by the legislation represent an important step toward multi-year planning, authorization, and funding. The reporting requirements will better organize and aggregate information to produce research and development budgeting with more efficiency. Careful consideration of the form and timing of budgetary support information can improve the quality of the data available and lessen the difficulties encountered by the executive branch. Two keys to providing Congress with more useful information without excessive burdens on the executive branch will be the (1) use of a generally agreed upon inventory of research and development programs by Congress and the Federal agencies, and (2) earlier agreement between the committees and the executive on the questions to be answered by the budget justifications. Good management of the time available for preparing budget justifications is another way to improve information quality while reducing the budget preparation workload.