It goes back further than that. During the 19th Century, it was found by Congress that the US was funding a ton of primary research through various grants. (I have no idea how they didn't know about this, considering Congress has the power of the purse in the US.) This lead to the short-sighted cancellation of a lot of research funding the in the US in the 1880s. People with most foresight managed to secretly keep funding basic research, mostly through the military. That's why the US Naval Observatory and the Army Corps of Engineers have their names stamped on so much research from the period between 1890 and 1930.
During the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal funded a surprising amount of research by funding colleges and universities. The national labs founded during WWII continued the tradition. In the post-war period, the NSF and ARPA/DARPA brought back direct funding of basic research.
So, you see, the US government has always heavily funded scientific and technological research and development in the US.