NOAA has made available guidance regarding research impacted due to COVID-19 and suspension of campus operations. Researchers with grants funded by NOAA should review the document to determine reporting requirements and the possibility of extensions. The full document is available here.
Yesterday, the broader higher education community sent to Congress a series of recommendations and requests for assistance aimed at stabilizing the entire enterprise as it tries to cope with COVID-19. The requests fall into a number of distinct categories:
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.
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:
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.
Following the Senate’s lead from last week, the House cleared yesterday the massive spending package that combines the annual Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills by a vote of 361-61. The Senate approved it by a vote of 93 to 7. The bill also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund through December 7 the other agencies and programs whose funding bills are not signed into law by next Monday.
Earlier this week, there had been some uncertainty about whether the president would actually sign the package because it did not contain the funding his wants for a border wall along the Southern border. It now appears that he will indeed sign it.
The CR could now apply to a larger number of bills– seven– than originally hoped for. House and Senate negotiators have spent the last several weeks trying to reach a compromise on a combined package of four more appropriations measures and it remains uncertain at this point whether an agreement can be reached and signed into law before the House recesses on Friday. Among the bills under discussion are those that would fund the departments of Interior and Agriculture.