Consider the source, but the Computing Research Association breaks down the shape of the US Govt's Fiscal Year 2006 research appropriations. The skinny? Things were looking grim pre-Katrina, with the real dollar equivalent of budget cuts being applied to many of the agencies (NSF, DOE, NASA, et. al.) where academic computing gets its funding. Post-Katrina, the odds are looking up for even deeper across the board cuts at places like NSF.
With the Department of Defense trending towards more short term, technology transferish projects, funding is getting hairy for research computing. Boo hoo for ivory tower types I know, but computing used to be a national competitive advantage. Now we're falling back to the pack.