For FY 2004, DHS has received $918 million for S&T, $115 million above the amount requested by the President. These funds are targeted to research, development and deployment of innovative technologies, including those proposed by universities, national laboratories, private companies and non-profit organizations:

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) remains a point of bitter contention among the White House, Senate and House. The Bush Administration has repeatedly attempted to eliminate the program, and the House denied funding for ATP in preliminary FY 2004 budget bills. Nevertheless, Congressional negotiators agreed to fund ATP at $179.2 million in FY 2004, including over $60 million for new awards. The fireworks are likely to continue since the Bush Administration has once again proposed termination of the program in FY 2005.

The Administration has not explained what reforms it believes are necessary. However, the President's budget proposal calls for a flat funding level of $39.6 million for FY 2005. If there is a new competition for all existing MEP centers, this funding level would be insufficient to support MEP centers serving all 50 states, as MEP's current network does.

The Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration also remains controversial. In FY 2004, the Bush administration proposed elimination of this program. However, Congressional negotiators agreed to a $14 million allocation for TOP. President Bush requested no funds for this program in his FY 2005 budget request.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) FY 2005 request supports efforts of PTO to keep pace with workload growth, and to enhance the quality of its services. In FY 2005, the Administration proposes giving PTO full access to its fees, an increase of $310.9 million. With these funds, the PTO will improve processing capacity by hiring additional patent examiners, deliver an operational electronic patent application processing system, continue moving to an electronic trademark operation, and expand quality reviews to all stages of patent and trademark examination.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) FY 2004 budget increased $300 million over its FY 2003 level and $130 million over the Administration's budget request, bringing FY 2004 funding to $5.5 billion, the largest NSF budget ever. This figure still remains a billion dollars below the $6.6 billion called for in the NSF authorization bill, signed into law in December 2002, which proposed doubling the NSF budget by FY 2007. The funding increases come in $4.3 billion dollars for research; $945 million for education and human resources; and $156 million for research equipment. All other areas of the agency's budget remained flat.

The Bush Administration has requested a 3.0% increase for NSF for FY 2005. This represents an increase of $167.2 million over the current year's budget.

President Bush's FY 2005 budget included several multi-agency science and technology initiatives: Combating Terrorism ($4.4 billion), Networking and Information Technology ($2 billion), Climate Change (1.7 billion), and the National Nanotechnology Initiative ($982 million). The President also has proposed a new Manufacturing Initiative, consisting of increasing the budget for the National Science Foundation's Design, Manufacture and Industrial Innovation Division to $66 million, and the budget for the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to $30 million.

The H1-b Visa Grant Program, which has provided substantial funds for IT skills training, funded by application fees required of companies for each worker brought into the US, is at an end as of January 14, 2004 . The Department of Labor announced that it has suspended the program for review; although there is some thought that it will not be renewed because its authorization has expired. If so, remaining funds may be directed to some of the Administration's FY05 job training proposals.