The NSF has a new Theoretical
Foundations solicitation. Due date is February 19. Theory of
Computing has its own component within this cluster.
But not all NSF news is good. Remember
how Bush announced an American Competitive Initiative in his State of
the Union back in
February. ACI promised to double the NSF budget over ten years and
the president's proposed budget included an NSF increase of 7.8% for
FY 2007 that started October 1. The ACI had good support among both
political parties in congress. So what happened?
Congress couldn't pass most of the budget resolutions before the
elections. Monday Congressional democrats announced
they won't finish the spending bills left unfinished by the current
congress leaving budgets at last year's level until the beginning of
FY 2008 next October.
In a joint statement, the incoming Democratic chairmen of the House
and Senate Appropriations Committees said the urgency of new business
and the administration's next spending request for the war in Iraq
gave them little choice but to abandon efforts to pass the overdue
bills.
The increases for NSF and other scientific agencies weren't singled
out but science was one of the few programs slated for a long-needed
budget increase this year.