Congress Stands by Science in Final Budget Deal

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

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From: FYI <fyi () aip-info org>
Date: Tue, May 2, 2017 at 11:31 AM
Subject: Congress Stands by Science in Final Budget Deal
To: <farber () central cis upenn edu>



View in browser <http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT77B-1/c.aspx>

*Number 53: May 2, 2017*

Congress Stands by Science in Final Budget Deal

Congress has reached a final agreement on a fiscal year 2017 appropriations
bill that boosts funding for a few science agencies while holding others
steady. The bill stands in stark contrast to a Trump administration
proposal that would have imposed deep cuts on federal science to help pay
for a defense and border security buildup.

Yesterday, congressional leaders announced
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LV-1/c.aspx> an agreement to
advance appropriations for the current fiscal year 2017, which runs through
Sept. 30. The catch-all omnibus appropriations bill
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LW-1/c.aspx> provides for over
$1 trillion in discretionary spending across the federal government, and
would fund the annual budgets for all the federal science agencies. A set
of accompanying reports offers additional guidance on congressional
priorities and designates funding levels for specific agency programs.



The legislation is the product of over two years of budget development,
consideration, and bipartisan negotiations between the White House, House,
and Senate. The House is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday,
followed by Senate action on Friday, putting it on track for enactment
before Friday’s midnight budget deadline.



The chart below summarizes changes in funding levels for selected science
agencies:

Congress largely opted to stay the course and fund the science agencies at
levels within or near the ranges approved by
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LX-1/c.aspx> the House and
Senate appropriations subcommittees last summer. The final legislation
affirms what congressional appropriators have signaled in recent weeks:
that they essentially disregarded the White House’s request
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LY-1/c.aspx> for immediate – and
in some cases deep – spending cuts to R&D and other non-defense programs.


For example, the White House proposed to completely eliminate the Advanced
Research Projects Agency–Energy that awards competitive grants for
high-risk applied energy research. Congress chose to go the opposite
direction and will be increasing ARPA–E’s budget by 5.2 percent with the
legislation.



However, even as many science agencies received above-average support in
the omnibus bill, Congress was constrained by a 2015 budget law that capped
the increase in overall discretionary spending to only $3 billion, or 0.3
percent, above the fiscal year 2016 level. Not every science agency
received a funding increase, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and National Institute of Standards and Technology in
particular are set to experience slight declines in spending.




Funding Levels for Selected Science Agencies

Among the science agencies and programs, Department of Defense S&T (defined
as the sum of DOD’s Basic Research, Applied Research, and Advanced
Technology Development accounts), the National Institutes of Health, and
NOAA’s research line office will receive major increases of over 6 percent
above fiscal year 2016 levels, while NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and
the U.S. Geological Survey will receive more modest boosts of between 2 and
4 percent. The budgets of the Department of Energy Office of Science and
the National Science Foundation will be held about flat, while NIST will
experience a 1 percent decrease.



Over the upcoming days, FYI will cover the details of the budget agreement
for each of these science agencies. The primary budget documents can be
accessed through the following links:



·        Energy-Water
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LZ-1/c.aspx> (funds DOE)

·        Commerce, Justice, Science
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M0-1/c.aspx> (funds NASA, NSF,
NOAA, NIST)

·        Defense <http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M1-1/c.aspx>
(funds DOD)

·        Labor-Health and Human Services-Education
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M2-1/c.aspx> (funds NIH,
Education Department)

·        Interior-Environment
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M3-1/c.aspx> (funds USGS)



Spending deal a long time coming



The omnibus spending agreement arrives seven months into fiscal year 2017,
during which time federal agencies have been operating under considerable
budget uncertainty and without the authority to start new programs. The
last time Congress approved
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M4-1/c.aspx> new spending levels
was in December 2015.



Congressional leaders nearly completed their appropriations work last
December, but the incoming Trump administration asked Congress to hold off
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M5-1/c.aspx> on a final deal so
it could weigh in. It then offered few specifics until March, when the
administration submitted
<http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3LY-1/c.aspx> a supplementary
budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 which called for immediate cuts across
the non-defense discretionary budget to pay for a defense and border
security boost. Congress received the request coolly.



A number of appropriators have recently expressed frustration over how the
appropriations cycle dragged on with continuing resolutions since the end
of last September. Senior Republican appropriator Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
said it was “*a mistake*” not to finalize the fiscal year 2017 package when
it was nearly ready last fall, and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking
Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and others have expressed similar sentiments.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) put a more positive spin
on the finalization of the overdue spending package, saying *“I think we’re
blessed with a system that works.” *


After enactment, Congress will immediately turn to the fiscal year 2018
appropriations, already substantially delayed.

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importance.

*Read More > <http://aip-info.org/1ZJN-4WWBI-E29DH7-2LT3M6-1/c.aspx>*
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The National Science Board has released an interactive infographic
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