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Category: 2018 UW Federal Agenda

Senate Seeks to Pass “Minibus” This Evening

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Earlier last week, it was expected that the Senate would pass its version of the first “minibus” spending package for FY2019, composed of the Energy and Water, Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch bills, by the end of the week.  Late last Thursday, however, as a result of drawn out debates on partisan amendments related to “Waters of the U.S.” regulation and funding for the “veterans choice” program, the Senate leadership decided to postpone further debate on the measure until this week.  The Senate is scheduled to take up the package again later this evening.

Although floor action on the spending package was postponed, the Senate appropriators continued to make progress in committee last week, as they approved three more spending bills:  Homeland Security, Financial Services and General Government, and State and Foreign Operations.

More action on the appropriations is expected this week as Appropriations committees in both chambers are scheduled to take up their respective versions of the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill this week.

Administration Releases Proposal to Reorganize Agencies

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Earlier today, the Trump Administration released a plan that it had been developing to reorganize federal agencies.

Called “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century,” the plan calls for a number of sweeping changes to a number of different federal agencies, including combining the Departments of Education and Labor into a single agency.  Among the other changes being proposed is a call to move all federal Graduate Fellowships to the National Science Foundation.

This plan is the culmination of a directive issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget after Mick Mulvaney was sworn in as its director at the beginning of the Trump Administration in 2017.

Many, if not most, of the proposals called for in the plan will require Congressional approval.

We will continue to monitor developments and provide updates.

Administration Issues “SAP” on Senate Minibus

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The Senate is currently working on its version of the first “minibus” spending package that was cleared earlier in the spring by the House, a measure that contains three of the 12 spending bills for FY2019:  Energy and Water Development; Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.  In anticipation of its passage, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) on the legislation, which often highlights provisions and/or policies of particular interest to the Administration in office.  A copy of SAP is the here.

Details of Senate CJS, Interior Bills Available

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Many more details contained in the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) and Interior Appropriations Bills are now available.  Both were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.

CJS Bill

The detailed report accompanying the bill is available here.

With respect to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Senate committee-passed bill would fund the agency as a whole at $8.07 billion and the individual directorates in the following manner:

  • Research and Related Activities– $6.56 billion ($6.33 billion in FY2018)
  • Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction– $249.3 million, including full funding for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope ($182.8 million in FY2018)
  • Education and Human Resources– $915.0 million ($902.0 million in FY2018)

The bill would fund NASA at $21.3 billion.  The agency is currently funded at $20.7 billion.

  • NASA Science would receive a total of $6.40 billion.  That amount would be divided up in the following manner:
    • Earth Science:  $1.93 billion
    • Planetary Science:  $2.20 billion
    • Astrophysics:  $1.24 billion, including $352 for WFIRST
    • Webb Telescope:  $304.6 million
    • Heliophysics:  $720.0 million
  • Office of Education— The bill proposes to restructure the current Office of Education to a new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Opportunities account.  As part of the new account, the Space Grant Program would be funded at $44 million.

Within NOAA, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) would receive $508.3 million.  As part of OAR, the Climate Research Cooperative Institutes would be funded at $61.0 million.  The Competitive Research line within the Climate Research Program would be funded at $60 million.

The committee showed its support for the Sea Grant Program by allocating a $6-million increase for it.

The Integrated Ocean Observing System would be funded at $37.0 million under this bill.

Interior Bill

A number of agencies and programs of interest are also funded by the Interior Bill.  A copy of the report that details the directives regarding the spending levels in it is available here.

A program funded through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Cooperative Research Units would see a modest increase in the Senate bill.  The committee also included the following observation and directive about the program:

Committee notes that USGS Cooperative Research Units [CRU] have served as a cooperative network with Interior partners to improve and increase youth involvement in science and resources management. The Committee recognizes the value of these programs in building the workforce of tomorrow and strongly encourages the Survey to develop a plan and address open research positions at research institutions and fill open positions at CRUs as quickly as practicable to support the educational pipeline.

The Earthquake Early Warning system, also funded through the USGS, would be supported at $12.9 million in FY2019 while the Climate Adaptation Science Centers would be level-funded at $25.3 million.

 

 

Congress Continues to March Through Appropriations

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Both chambers of Congress continue their march through the FY2019 appropriations process.

The Senate Appropriations Committee took up and cleared its Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Legislative Branch bills earlier today, meaning that the committee has cleared seven of the 12 spending bills.  Some of the initial details about the CJS and Interior bills were posted yesterday.

In the House, the Defense spending measure was reported out by the Appropriations Committee yesterday and the Labor-HHS-Education bill is scheduled to be taken up by its subcommittee Friday morning.

House Defense Appropriations Bill 

  • Army:  Under this bill, the Army basic research (“6.1”) programs would be funded at $442.2 million while the Army applied research (“6.2”) programs would receive $1.32 billion.
  • Navy:  Navy 6.1 programs would be funded at $619.4 million while Navy 6.2 programs would be funded at $889.2 million.
  • Air Force:  The bill would fund Air Force 6.1 at $516.4 million and would support 6.2 programs at $1.38 billion.
  • Defense-wide:  Defense-wide 6.1 programs would be funded at $720.1 million while the defense-wide 6.2 account would receive $1.97 billion.

A copy of the detailed report for the bill is available here.

Subcommittee Labor-HHS-Education Bill

While the full details from the bill are not yet available, some of the contents of the measure are known.

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH):  Under this bill, NIH would receive an increase of $1.25 billion above the current level, to $38.3 billion
  • Pell Grants:  The maximum award would be maintained at $6,095.
  • TRIO and GEAR UP:  TRIO would be increased by $60 million and GEAR UP would be increased by $10 million.

We will share additional details as they become available.