That is what I would have interpreted that to mean as well, but the numbers in the far right column don't really appear to be inflation-adjusted relative to the actual primary sources.
Here, for instance, is the actual appropriations bill for 1998 [1]. As you can see,
> "There are authorized to be appropriated to the Foundation $3,505,630,000 for fiscal year 1998."
For comparison, the value in the aforementioned table for FY1998 is $3,430.63 M. This is a bit off, presumably because in contrast to the bill the values in the table are " after supplemental appropriations, transfers, and reprogrammings".
I had missed, though, that the appropriations for the last two years were actually higher than the request, so some signs of recent growth.
