The House has announced it will move forward with considering its second minibus of the year (the first minibus was passed in June). The second minibus will contain the House-versions of the FY2019 Interior and Financial Services bills. The House is expected to consider the measures on the floor the week of July 16th.
Category: Environmental Research & Sustainability
EPA Administrator Resigns
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
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.
Congress Continues to March Through Appropriations
Both chambers of Congress continue their march through the FY2019 appropriations process.
The Senate Appropriations Committee took up and cleared its Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Legislative Branch bills earlier today, meaning that the committee has cleared seven of the 12 spending bills. Some of the initial details about the CJS and Interior bills were posted yesterday.
In the House, the Defense spending measure was reported out by the Appropriations Committee yesterday and the Labor-HHS-Education bill is scheduled to be taken up by its subcommittee Friday morning.
House Defense Appropriations Bill
- Army: Under this bill, the Army basic research (“6.1”) programs would be funded at $442.2 million while the Army applied research (“6.2”) programs would receive $1.32 billion.
- Navy: Navy 6.1 programs would be funded at $619.4 million while Navy 6.2 programs would be funded at $889.2 million.
- Air Force: The bill would fund Air Force 6.1 at $516.4 million and would support 6.2 programs at $1.38 billion.
- Defense-wide: Defense-wide 6.1 programs would be funded at $720.1 million while the defense-wide 6.2 account would receive $1.97 billion.
A copy of the detailed report for the bill is available here.
Subcommittee Labor-HHS-Education Bill
While the full details from the bill are not yet available, some of the contents of the measure are known.
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): Under this bill, NIH would receive an increase of $1.25 billion above the current level, to $38.3 billion
- Pell Grants: The maximum award would be maintained at $6,095.
- TRIO and GEAR UP: TRIO would be increased by $60 million and GEAR UP would be increased by $10 million.
We will share additional details as they become available.
Initial Details of Senate CJS, Interior Bills Available
As noted yesterday, two of the Senate appropriations subcommittees approved the FY2019 Commerce-Justice-Science and Interior spending bills. While the detailed reports accompanying the bills are not yet available, some from the measures are known.
The CJS bill would fund some of the agencies in the following manner:
- $8.1 billion for NSF, $301 million above the FY2018 enacted level, including:
- $6.56 billion for NSF’s research and research activities, an increase of $222 million above the current level;
- $915 million for NSF’s education and training programs, an increase of $13 million above FY2018.
- $21.3 billion for NASA, $587 million above current level, including:
- $6.4 billion for Science, $179 million above the FY2018 level, including $1.9 billion for Earth science, $2.2 billion for Planetary science, $1.5 billion for astrophysics (including $304 million for the Webb telescope), and $720 million for Heliophysics;
- $725 million for Aeronautics, an increase of $40 million;
- $933 million for Space Technology, $173-million increase.
- $5.48 billion for NOAA, a $426-million decrease below the current level, including $71 million for the Sea Grant program, which is a $6-million increase.
The Interior bill, which funds, among other agencies the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). It would appropriate $1.15 billion to the USGS and $155 million to the NEH.
We will continue to provide additional details as they become available.