Campaign Promises

Departments -> Labor -> Innovation
Item	Labor
Innovation		Grade
LA-26	The Promise: "...will support doubling federal funding for basic research over ten years...This will foster home-grown innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in America." When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Connecting and Empowering All Americans Through Technology and Innovation" dated 11/13/07. Source: https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2009/04/obamatechplan.pdf Status:The authorized funding level for federal research and development (R&D) in FY2009 was $147.0B. This was the amount to be doubled under this promise, excluding $18.4B for federal R&D authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. According to Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports issued annually to address the status of federal R&D funding across all agencies and based largely on President Obama's annual requests, authorized funding was as follows: FY2010....$147.1B FY2011....$142.7B FY2012....$140.9B FY2013....$130.3B FY2014....$136.3B FY2015....$138.2B FY2016....$146.1B FY2017....$125.2B Instead of "doubling" funding for federal R&D during President Obama's two terms in office, notwithstanding the ARRA plus-up reflected above, annual appropriations were actually less than the FY2009 authorized amount to be doubled ($147.0) each year except for FY2010. This promise was not fulfilled.	0.00