On November 13th, UW signed onto a letter circulated by the Michael J Fox Foundation to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The letter opposes the Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule, which would require raw data to be made publicly available when it is used to formulate new regulations. UW is joined by over sixty other higher education institutions, associations, and research organizations in opposing these rule changes. There are many instances, especially in the health sciences, when making raw data publicly available would be infeasible or harm the confidentiality of research subjects. Therefore, this rule could limit the quality of data used in the regulatory process, as only data which could be made publicly available would be utilized.
Category: Environment
Spending Details Now Available
The Senate Appropriations Committee has made available the details of the spending bills it cleared yesterday.
The text of the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill is available here and a copy of the report is available here.
The committee has also posted the Interior spending measure and the accompanying report.
With respect to what is in the bills, the Senate CJS legislation would:
- Fund the National Science Foundation at $8.32 billion, an increase of $242 million above the current level.
- Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities Account would receive $6.77 billion, an increase of approximately $250 million above current levels.
- Activities funded through the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account would be funded at $253 million, which is $42.5 million below the current level. The committee funds the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope at the Administration-requested level.
- Education and Human Resources would see a total of $937 million under this bill.
- Fund NASA at $22.75 billion, $1.25 billion above the FY2019 level.
- The Science Mission Directorate would be funded at $6.91 billion.
- Within Science, the bill proposes to fund the various accounts in the following manner:
- Earth Science: $1.945 billion
- Planetary Science: $2.631 billion
- Astrophysics: $1.171 billion
- $445.7 million for WFIRST
- Heliophysics: $735.0 million
- Aeronautics: $725.0 million
- Space Technology: $926.9 million
- STEM Engagement: $112.0 million
- Space Grant: $47.0 million
- Within Science, the bill proposes to fund the various accounts in the following manner:
- The Science Mission Directorate would be funded at $6.91 billion.
The Interior Appropriations Bill also funds a number of agencies, programs, and accounts of interest to UW as well. For example, the committee-approved bill would fund the National Endowment for the Humanities at $157.0 million, $2 million above the current level.
In addition, the bill also funds, among other agencies and programs, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Within USGS, the report includes the following language with respect to the Climate Adaptation Science Centers:
The new Climate Adaption Science Center sub activity receives $44,488,000. The recommendation includes funding to maintain the fiscal year 2019 levels for the Centers. It is the Committee’s expectation that funding will be distributed according to the allocation methodology in previous years ensuring all Centers remain open and at current levels.
It also contains the following text with respect to the early earthquake warning system:
Natural Hazards.—The bill includes $170,838,000 for Natural Hazards programs. Within the Earthquake Hazards program, the Committee continues to support the multitude of regional earthquake initiatives, but is concerned about the budget structure for each network as it relates to operations, maintenance, and infrastructure; therefore, the Committee directs the Survey to report back within 90 days after enactment of this act with a breakdown of funding between the operations, maintenance, and infrastructure expenditures in 2018 and 2019 along with recommendations on how to better structure the funding for these initiatives. This recommendation provides funding to ensure all the regional networks receive 2019 base funding level for operations and maintenance, including earthquake early warning and the Central and Eastern USNetwork [CEUSN]. Within these amounts, the Committee directs that regional networks which recently acquired the USArray stations from the National Science Foundation receive $3,000,000 for the operations and maintenance as these networks work to incorporate and use all Earthscope data. On top of base operations and maintenance for each network, the recommendation includes $17,500,000 for equipment and infrastructure costs. The Committee is also concerned that the updates to the national seismic hazard maps do not consistently include all 50 States and directs the Survey to update these maps for all 50 States, not just the lower 48, and provides $2,000,000 for this effort.
The Committee is concerned about the lack of knowledge and real time instrumentation available for the Cascadia subduction zone; therefore, the Committee encourages the continued development of a system for Cascadia that will help prepare for and mitigate the negative human and economic impacts of a major seismic event.
The Cooperative Research Units, also funded by the USGS, would receive $18.4 million next year, the same amount as this year.
We will provide further details as the process moves forward.
First Spending Bills to be Cleared by Friday?
The conference report for the package that contains the first three appropriations bills of FY2019– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– was quickly adopted by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 92 to 5. An agreement between the House and Senate negotiators was reached on it earlier this week.
The House is scheduled to take up the measure later today and is expected to clear it by Friday, clearing it for the President’s signature. As noted above, these three bills, if signed into law, would represent the first spending bills approved for FY2019, which starts on Oct 1.
On a related note, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to formally meet today on two other sets of spending bills. The first combines the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Defense bills and second pulls together the Interior, Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services bills.
OSTP Nominee Confirmed by Senate Committee
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.
Progress as Deadline on Spending Bills Approaches?
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.