The scientist nominated by President Trump to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kelvin Droegemeier, was approved yesterday by the Senate Commerce Committee. Droegemeier, currently Vice President for Research at the University of Oklahoma, was tapped to head the office in August. A severe weather scientist, he was a member of the National Science Board under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Read more about him and the nomination here and here.
Even as most of the national media is focused on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings as Congress returns to work this week, we could see progress on the appropriations front. The next fiscal year, FY2019, starts October 1 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law so far.
Although hurdles still remain, it appears that House and Senate negotiators are making progress on a package of three bills– made up of the Energy and Water Development, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch measures– as they get ready to formally meet as a conference committee later today. At the same time, on a separate track, there appears to be movement on a second package of bills, which contains the Labor-Health and Human Services and Defense bills, which are the two largest spending measures.
Both chambers have agreed to their respective versions of the three-bill package and negotiators must hash out the differences.
On the other hand, while the defense bill has been passed by both houses, only the Senate has been able to move on the Labor-HHS measure. Because the House version of the latter bill is viewed by some as being much more controversial than the Senate version with respect to policy provisions contained in it, it will not be brought to the House floor for a vote. Instead, the House agreed yesterday to go to conference with the Senate on the two-bill package without the full House having considered the Labor-HHS bill. In addition, negotiations between the two sides have begun on the contours of a package.
Congressional leadership hopes to get these five bills signed into law before October 1. The current thinking is that programs funded through spending bills not adopted by the start of FY2019 would be funded on a short-term basis through a continuing resolution until the other measures can be signed into law.
After three days of debating amendments on the floor, the House passed this morning a spending package that includes the FY2019 Interior and Financial Services appropriations bills. This morning’s action means that half of the 12 annual spending bills have now cleared the House.
On a related note, the last of the House appropriations bills, the Homeland Security funding bill, is scheduled to be marked up in subcommittee today. The markup is expected to be contentious as a result of a number of controversies, such as those surrounding family separations at the border and the Administration’s push for funding for a border wall.
President Donald Trump tweeted today that he has accepted the resignation of EPA chief Scott Pruitt. Pruitt had been the subject of numerous ethics investigations involving his travel, spending, use of staff, and favors by industry lobbyists.
The agency’s Deputy Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will act as the agency’s leader until a new administrator is nominated by Mr. Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
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:
The bill would fund NASA at $21.3 billion. The agency is currently funded at $20.7 billion.
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.