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Category: Environmental Research & Sustainability

Progress and Potential Stumbling Blocks Seen on FY2019 Spending

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While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills.  If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.

While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain.  For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.

In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.”  This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move.  It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.

Second Spending Package Clears House

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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.

 

EPA Administrator Resigns

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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.

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.