Appropriators have yet to announce plans for writing the massive Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, which is always among the last and most controversial funding measures to move.  The bill faces an additional challenge this year with the pending Supreme Court ruling on health care reform due in June.  House appropriators might wait until after the ruling to move the bill.  Meanwhile in the Senate expects the court will uphold the law and plans to write its spending bill assuming health reform will remain intact.

Tuesday

• The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold subcommittee markups of its Commerce, Justice, Science FY 2013 spending bill and its Transportation, Housing and Urban Development FY 2013 spending bill.
• The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on the health and status of the Department of Defense science and technology laboratories and enterprise.

Wednesday

• The House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee will mark up its Energy and Water Development FY 2013 spending bill.
• The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold subcommittee hearings on budget and spending concerns at the DOE and FDA User Fees 2012: How Innovation Helps Patients and Jobs.
• The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold subcommittee hearings on NSF Major Multi-User Research Facilities Management and Growing the Wireless Economy through Innovation.

Thursday

• The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DOE National Labs: Finding Efficiencies and Optimizing Outputs in Homeland Security Research and Development.
• The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on Impact of Tax Policies on the Commercial Application of Renewable Energy Technology.
• The American Chemical Society will hold a Capitol Hill briefing on Cybersecurity and Smart Infrastructure: Ensuring Resilience and Deterrence.

                          

National Institutes of Health- $31.8 billion, an increase of 3.3% over the FY10 level of $30.8 billion

White House/Office of Management and Budget HHS FY12 Budget Summary

National Science Foundation- $7.77 billion, an increase of 13% over the FY10 level of $6.87 billion –keeping the agency on track for a 10-year (FY08-FY17) doubling that is authorized in last year’s America COMPETES Act

NSF FY12 Budget Materials

Department of Energy, Office of Science- $5.4 billion, an increase of 10.2% over the FY10 level of $4.9 billion –keeping the agency on track for a 10-year (FY08-FY17) doubling that is authorized in last year’s America COMPETES Act. $550 million is also included for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to continue support for the promising early-stage research projects that could deliver game-changing clean energy technologies.

DoE FY12 Budget Materials

Department of Defense, Science and Technology- $12.2 billion for science and technology programs, which includes a 2% real growth in basic research

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency- $5.5 billion, an increase of 14.3% over the FY10 level of $4.85 billion

White House/Office of Management and Budget Department of Commerce FY12 Budget Summary

Department of Education-

• Continues support for a $5,550 maximum Pell Grant award, $819 above the level in 2008, largely paid for by eliminating the year-round Pell Grant and the in-school interest subsidy for graduate and professional student loans
• Invests $26.8 billion, an increase of 6.9 percent, in a reformed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) focused on raising standards, encouraging innovation, and rewarding success, while allowing States and districts more flexibility to invest resources where they will have the greatest impact. The new ESEA directs funds to reform-oriented competitive initiatives, consolidates dozens of programs, and cuts programs that do not demand results.
• Provides $1.4 billion for new competitions, modeled on the Race to the Top initiative, to strengthen and reform early childhood education, improve district performance in elementary and secondary education, and improve outcomes in higher education

Department of Education FY12 Budget Materials

National Endowment for the Humanities- $146 million, a decrease of 13% from the FY10 level of $168 million

NEH FY12 Budget Summary

Additional information on President Obama’s FY12 budget request will be posted as it becomes available. The release of the President’s Budget Request (PBR) is the first step in appropriations process for the coming year. After Congress and the President settle on a path forward for FY11 — which began on October 1, 2010 — the FY12 process will begin to move forward.

                          

“We’re at an important transition point…we need to leverage technology’s promise to improve learning” the Secretary expressed in remarks. The plan, “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology,” presents a model with key goals in five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Each section outlines concepts for using technology to holistically transform education, with the aim to achieve each goal by 2015. Overall, the plan addresses trends that could transform education, such as accessibility and mobility, the rise of digital content, and the rise of online social networks for information, collaboration, and learning. Also, it stresses that technology in the classroom only works when paired with effective teaching.

More information can be found here