USPTO seeks $1.7B in FY2006 Budget setting the stage for reappearance of fee-diversion issue

Yesterday, President Bush submitted the FY2006 budget to Congress, including a request for $1.703 billion for the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  According to the USPTO, the requested amount represents an increase of $149 million over the budget for this year and includes monies for additional examiners and continued implementation of the 21st Century Strategic Plan.

The issue of fee diversion will likely be debated again this year.  In its press release regarding the budget, the Department of Commerce states that the proposed budget gives the USPTO full access to its FY2006 fees:

The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) request will support the PTO strategic plan to keep pace with workload growth and enhance the quality of products and services. In FY 2006, the Administration proposes giving PTO full access to its fees: an increase of $148.5 million. With these funds, the PTO will improve processing capacity by hiring additional patent examiners, continue development of an operational system to process patent applications electronically, continue moving to an electronic trademark operation, and expand quality reviews to all stages of patent and trademark examination.

Remember that full access to fees was sought in the last Congress.  The Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act (HR 1561) included anti-fee diversion provisions in addition to significant user fee increases.  The bill enjoyed wide support by USPTO stakeholders despite the fee increases, at least partially due to the anti-fee diversion provisions and the pledges by the USPTO of increased quality and efficiency that could be achieved with full access to fees.  In the end, the fee increases made it through Congress, while the anti-fee diversion provisions were left on the floor.

How will the 109th Congress treat the issue?

UPDATE:  Sabrina at beSpacific points out that the budget is available online.  You can browse it, or download the entire thing (.zip of .pdf files).