(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget submitted to Congress for the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) proposes a funding level of $1.001 billion, an 8.9-percent increase over the president’s FY 2011 budget request and a 16.9-percent increase above NIST’s FY 2010 appropriations.

The NIST budget request reinforces the administration’s commitment to science and technology by doubling funding for NIST laboratories, one of several strategies for maintaining U.S. technological leadership laid out in the President’s Plan for Science and Innovation and reaffirmed in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–358).

“The president’s budget request for NIST reflects the critical role that measurement science, standards, and directed technological investments play in ensuring and enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers and U.S. industry,” says Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST director Patrick Gallagher. “Further investments in research and development will also help to generate new innovations that will create the jobs and high-tech industries of the future.”

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