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Category: Environment

First Batch of Spending Bills Clears House Floor

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As expected, the House cleared its first package of FY2021 spending bills earlier this afternoon.  The four-bill batch, H. R. 7608, combines four separate pieces of legislation:  State-Foreign Operations; Agriculture; Interior and Environment; and Military Construction- Veterans Affairs.  It was adopted by a vote of 224 to 189.  A summary of H. R. 7608 is available here.

Next week, the House is currently scheduled to take up a second “minibus”, made up of seven appropriations bills:  Defense; Labor-HHS-Education; Commerce-Justice-Science; Homeland Security; Financial Services-General Government; Energy and Water; and Transportation-HUD.  That would leave the Legislative Branch measure as the only one of the 12 that will not have been taken up by the full chamber by the end of next week.

On the other side of the Hill, the Senate has yet to act on any of its bills, and with negotiations around the next COVID-relief bill expected to take up all of the time before the August recess, it is not expected do so until September at the earliest.

Spending Bills Move to the House Floor

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After a flurry of activities in subcommittee and full committee the last two weeks, the vast majority of FY2021 spending bills is scheduled to move to the House floor this week and next for consideration by the full chamber.  Rather than considering them individually, the bills will be grouped into two different “minibus” legislative packages.

The first grouping of bills, H.R 7608, is made up of four pieces of legislation and it is slated for consideration later this week:  State-Foreign Operations; Agriculture; Interior; and, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.  A summary of the package, prepared by the House Democratic staff, is available here.

The second batch, H.R. 7617, is currently scheduled for floor action next week.  This second minibus pulls together seven of the eight remaining spending measures:  Defense; Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy and Water; Financial Services; Homeland Security; Labor-HHS-Education; and, Transportation-Housing.  A summary of the different parts of the large bill is available here.

Should these packages pass, only the Legislative Branch would remain unapproved in the House by the end of next week.

House Appropriations Process Marches On

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The FY2021 appropriations process continues to march on in the House, for now, with two more bills slated for committee action today. This afternoon, the Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Labor-HHS-Education and Energy and Water Development bills.

Labor-HHS-Education

As part of the  overall level of $47 billion for NIH, the Labor-HHS-Education bill would fund:

  • HIV/AIDS Research at $3.1 billion
  • Alzheimer’s research at $2.9 billion

In addition, AHRQ would be funded at $343 million

Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing  programs would be funded at $512.5 million and $270.0 million, respectively.

The Labor-HHS report also includes the following language with respect to the reporting of foreign gifts that meet certain criteria:

Disclosure of Foreign Gifts and Contracts.—The Committee reminds colleges and universities receiving Federal funds that section 117 of the HEA requires institutions to disclose certain gifts from or contracts with foreign entities and that the Department makes such information publicly available on its website. The Committee directs the Department to work with institutions to improve the reporting process. Disclosure requirements increase transparency and help protect our national security and academic integrity.

In addition to the funding levels for the programs we reported on last week, the House bill would also fund Title VI International Education programs at $80.3 million (an increase of $4.2 million), GAANN at $24.0 million (an increase of $1 million), and the Institute of Education Sciences at $630.5 million (an increase of $7 million).

Energy and Water

The Energy and Water Development bill under consideration today calls for $2.85 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EER&E) programs, an increase of $58 million.  Within EER&E, renewable energy programs would see a cut of $4 million and would be supported at $638 million.

The bill calls for ARPA-E to be funded at $1.02 billion, which represents an increase of $35 million.

The Office of Science would see $7.05 billion under this bill, an increase of $50 million.  Following programs within Science would be funded in the following manner:

  • Advanced Scientific Computing–  $1.02 billion (+$35 million)
  • Basic Energy Sciences– $2.24 billion (+$29 million)
  • Biological and Environmental Research–  $760 million (+$10 million)
  • Fusion– $680 million (+$9 million)
  • High Energy Physics– $1.08 billion (+$5 million)
  • Nuclear Physics– $715 million (+$2 million)

 

Appropriations Details Begin to Emerge

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With a number of bills moving to the full committee stage, details contained in various appropriations bills are beginning to emerge.  For example, the House Interior Appropriations bill would provide:

  • $25 million for the USGS Cooperative Research Units (an increase of $1 million);
  • $41.3 million for the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers program ($3-million increase);
  • $25.7 million for the ShakeAlert West Coast earthquake early warning system (level funded);

The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the full Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning.  We will continue to provide updates as more details become available.

The Details Still Aren’t Pretty (Part 2)

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We continue to look through the budget documents released yesterday.

National Science Foundation

As noted yesterday, AI research seems to fare well across the different agencies.  While the Computer Science Directorate seems to be primary beneficiary of that initiative at NSF, other directorates within the Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account at the NSF are slated for cuts in the budget.  In fact, NSF as an agency would receive a cut of 7 percent in FY2021. The total budget for R&RA would be funded at approximately $6.2 billion, a cut of more than $500 below the current appropriated amount.

DOD

With respect to DOD-sponsored research, the Science and Technology accounts, “6.1” through “6.3” accounts, would see an overall decrease of 13.5 percent below the current level.  The Basic Research programs (“6.1” research) would be cut by nearly 11 percent.

DOE

The Office of Science at the Department of Energy would be cut by more than 17 percent while ARPA-E is slated for elimination.

Environmental Science Programs

Not surprisingly, programs in the environmental and climate science arenas would also see cuts.

For example, at the EPA, the Office of Science and Technology would be reduced by 32 percent.  Within the USGS , the Administration has proposed eliminate the Cooperative Research Units and has proposed to fund the Climate Adaptation Science Centers at $9.78 million, which is currently funded at $38.3 million.

 

We will continue to provide further updates.  It is important to keep in mind that the president’s budget being released is the start of a very long process, with Congress having the final say in how the funds are actually appropriated.