This month's passage of legislation that allows for the doubling of support for the National Science Foundation (NSF) over the next five years does not guarantee that the money will actually be forthcoming. That will be determined in annual budget negotiations. But it does mark an unprecedented vote of confidence by the legislature in the NSF, and in the concept of supporting basic scientific research.

The NSF has always been a tough sell in the Congress. It doesn't distribute large sums of money to facilities around the country, and its research programmes — unlike those of, say, the National Institutes of Health — don't directly address real applications that are close to lawmakers' hearts. Rather, it distributes small grants to university researchers who propose the most scientifically interesting work.

It is therefore a remarkable accomplishment — and a great credit to lawmakers who support the agency, such as House Science Committee chairman Sherwood Boehlert (Republican, New York) — that a law has been passed that may enable the NSF's annual budget to expand rapidly, from about $4 billion now to $8 billion by 2008.

The NSF earned this plaudit by consistently funding work on the basis of merit, and maintaining an honest peer-review system and an efficient management structure. Its director, Rita Colwell, has contributed to the momentum behind the bill by thinking big, and making a credible case that the agency can spend more money effectively.

If President Bush signs the bill into law, as expected, and then implements its provisions in his budget proposals, starting with the one released next February, he will truly have dispelled the notion that either his party or his administration is in any sense anti-science.