| |
By Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON -- New England's security and defense sector would reap billions of dollars under President Bush's latest budget proposal, while the region's biotechnology industry would benefit from an infusion of federal research dollars, according to administration documents and local industry officials.
The local windfall from increased national security spending would come at the expense of some of the general research the government has funded at many of the area's universities and medical centers. Federal research in the life, earth, and physical sciences would be reduced -- in some areas by up to 30 percent.
But local officials said the president's $2.7 trillion spending proposal for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, would probably translate into new opportunities for the cluster of technology firms in the Boston area that focus on homeland security and defense projects.
''The president's budget has a strong focus on scientific research and development, which plays into the strengths of Massachusetts' diverse technology companies," said Cort Boulanger, vice president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council.
''Eighty-five thousand people in Massachusetts are employed in the defense-related sector. The biotech industry is about 20,000. When there is an increase in those areas it should benefit Massachusetts."
Investing in new countermeasures against the deadly threat of biological terrorism is one area that will get a boost, according to the budget materials released Monday.
The National Institutes of Health's proposed $28.4 billion budget would include $1.9 billion for bio-defense research, including $160 million for advanced development of medical countermeasures against bio-terrorism, according to the documents.
The NIH budget ''supports basic research, which leads to breakthroughs in scientific knowledge, and advanced development that converts knowledge into products that can be manufactured in large quantities," the budget proposal says.
The emphasis on bio-terrorism defenses is especially good news for some Boston-area companies, said Stephen Mulloney, director of policy at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
''It's a growing area of biotech in Massachusetts, and the industry has benefited," he said. ''Many of our companies are global leaders in researching infectious diseases and creating cutting-edge vaccines. I think we have fared well."
He added that ''the bio-defense agenda is right up Massachusetts biotech's alley, but one of the challenges has been to introduce our companies to the interesting world of defense procurement."
Other funds to research alternative energy sources could also help the parts of the biotech-sector that are seeking to develop environmentally friendly fuel sources.
There is other good news for the region's economy in the $440 billion budget request for the Defense Department, which marks a nearly 7 percent increase over what was requested last year.
The budget would provide nearly $3 billion to construct the first two DD(X) destroyers for the Navy, a project managed by Raytheon Co. of Waltham. One of the futuristic ships would be built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
Billions of dollars for new high-tech weapons and unmanned drones for the Army would also require the expertise of many of the region's computer and networking firms, local officials said.
''The more the nation invests in military technology the more it benefits Massachusetts," Boulanger said.
The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, would increase nondefense spending by 8 percent over last year's to $3.2 billion -- to develop nuclear detection systems, protect the nation's critical infrastructure from computer attack, and develop<
|
