NSF FY19 Budget Request to Congress Reduces SBE Program Funding

On February 28, 2018, the National Science Foundation released its FY19 request to Congress, providing a breakdown of funding allocations of the White House’s overall $7.47 billion request for 2019. Although the FY19 request would include an overall 2.4 percent increase in research and related activities funding from FY17 enacted levels, the NSF’s budget proposal would cut funding for the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences directorate by 9.1 percent. If the budget were adopted by Congress, the division of social and economic sciences (SES), which includes political science programs, would receive an 11.4 percent cut. The NSF estimates this cut will reduce the funding rate for competitive awards in the SBE directorate from 24 percent in FY 2017 to 21 percent.