Bill Clinton got the scientific community's attention last month when he said that he aims to give the National Science Foundation (NSF) a record-breaking increase in 2001 (Science, 28 January, p. 558). The numbers, to be released officially on 7 February, sound remarkable—a proposed 17% boost that would be the largest in percentage terms since the Bush presidency and, at $675 million, the biggest dollar increase in the foundation's 50-year history. But the numbers don't tell the whole story. The overall request for $4.6 billion would actually provide a bit more money than NSF officials had sought under the most likely of three budget scenarios. At the same time, it shifts funds from what NSF had labeled as priorities into other areas of research. Ironically, the 2001 budget now tackles head-on a problem—the need to sustain "core" disciplines—that NSF officials have argued is important but did not address directly in their request. In the end, to paraphrase Mick Jagger, you might say that even if NSF didn't get what it wanted, at least it got what it needed.
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