President Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Commits to Double Investments in Key Industries of the Future

whitehouse.gov ^ | February 11, 2020 | White House

[ransomnote]

ACCELERATING UNITED STATES R&D: In a time of great power competition, President Trump’s FY 2021 Budget puts America in position to maintain its global leadership in science and technology for generations to come.

• President Trump’s FY 2021 Budget invests $142.2 billion in Federal research and development (R&D), a 6 percent increase over his FY 2020 budget.
• The President’s Budget prioritizes the Industries of the Future, and commits to double R&D spending in nondefense artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS) by 2022.
  • President Trump is the first President in American history to include AI and QIS as Administration R&D priorities. Since his inauguration, the Trump Administration has supported historic investments in R&D, bold national strategies, a pro-growth regulatory agenda, and a commitment to the American workforce.
• Beyond R&D, the FY 2021 Budget includes investments in education and job training that will help create a diverse and highly skilled American workforce to support the Industries of the Future.
  • At the National Science Foundation, an additional $50 million will go toward AI and QIS workforce development, with a focus on community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The President’s FY 2021 Budget includes a significant increase in nondefense AI R&D compared to the FY 2020 Budget and is on a path to double nondefense AI R&D by 2022.

• This increase brings spending for AI R&D and interdisciplinary research institutes at the National Science Foundation to more than $830 million, which represents a more than 70 percent increase over the FY 2020 budget.

• The Department of Energy’s Office of Science will invest $125 million in AI research, a $54 million increase over FY 2020.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide $100 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program to enhance application of advanced technology, including AI, in agricultural systems.
• The National Institutes of Health will invest $50 million for new research on chronic diseases using AI and related approaches.
• In regards to Defense AI R&D, DARPA is investing $459 million in AI R&D, an increase of $50 million from FY 2020, and the Department of Defense’s Joint AI Center is increasing its budget from $242 million in FY 2020 to $290 million in FY 2021.

• BACKGROUND: President Trump launched the American AI Initiative, the United States national strategy for AI leadership, in February 2019.
  • The American AI Initiative directed Federal agencies to prioritize artificial intelligence in their annual budget requests. The FY 2021 budget delivers on this request.
  • The Initiative also called for the development of the first ever agency-by-agency report of nondefense AI R&D spending. This report identified $1 billion in nondefense R&D for FY 2020, establishing a benchmark for measuring nondefense AI R&D budgets in the future.

QUANTUM INFORMATION SCIENCE: President Trump’s FY 2021 Budget greatly bolsters Federal QIS R&D funding with aggregate investment across key agencies increasing by more than 50 percent relative to the FY 2020 Budget, putting QIS R&D on the path to double by 2022.

• National Science Foundation investment in QIS research will double to $230 million, an additional $120 million over FY 2020.
• The Department of Energy Office of Science spending on QIS research will increase to $237 million, which will boost QIS efforts at the national laboratories and in academia and industry. This represents a nearly $70 million increase over FY 2020.
• The President’s Budget includes $25 million for the Department of Energy Office of Science to support early stage research for a quantum internet.
  • The development of a network of quantum computers and quantum devices holds promise for creating new technologies, improving the security of our communications and allowing dramatic advances in computing.
  • The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Quantum Coordination Office issued a Strategic Vision for America’s Quantum Networks, which provides the QIS research community with specific recommendations to focus quantum internet R&D activities.
• BACKGROUND: In December 2018, President Trump signed into law the bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Act, which greatly accelerated QIS R&D investment and coordination.
  • The FY 2020 Budget jumpstarted the R&D spending called for by the legislation with at least half a billion dollars for QIS R&D across the Federal Government.
  • As directed by the legislation, the White House established the National Quantum Coordination Office to harmonize QIS efforts across the Federal agencies.

[BBQToadRibs]

I saw he want’s to boost NASA’s budget as well. 1965-66 it was over 4% of the federal budget. Now it’s just under 0.5%. I’d like to see Russia and the Chi-Coms in the rear view mirror again. I know, it’s a completely different world. I’d like to dream though.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Overall these are excellent directions.

Then there is this gem: "Beyond R&D, the FY 2021 Budget includes investments in education and job training that will help create a diverse and highly skilled American workforce to support the Industries of the Future."

I personally think every federal program on "job training" is a failure and always will be. Government run schools are an abject failure across the board. It bugs me to no end that the government schools graduate know-nothings who then need to enroll in a federal "job training" program that teaches them what? Show up on time? Work hard? Don't look at your phone every five minutes? Do as your boss asks (or demands) and don't talk back? The common sense stuff our Dads taught us.

The GOVERNMENT creating a "highly skilled workforce"? Give me a break. What a joke.

This reads like an Obama press release, not one from Trump.

OK, enough of that. The additional basic R&D investment in AI and quantum computing is excellent.

[ealgeone]

If we didn’t have the social programs....we could do that and a lot more.