The Senate Appropriations Committee approved on Thursday two FY2017 spending bills in a pair of 30-0 votes — one for Defense and the other for Homeland Security.
The draft Defense measure would provide $574.6 billion in discretionary funds, while the Homeland Security total would be $41.2 billion.
The House Appropriations Committee today released their FY2017 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill that would provide $56 billion, which is a 0.5 percent increase from current spending, and $1.4 billion over the Administration’s request.
The bill, which will be marked up in subcommittee Wednesday, would give modest spending boosts to several law enforcement agencies including the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.
In science related topics, NASA would receive $19.5 billion, which is a $223 million increase and $1.2 billion above the President’s request. The bill includes $5.6 billion for NASA Science programs – $8 million above the 2016 enacted level and $295 million above the Administration’s request. This targets funding to planetary science, astrophysics, and heliophysics to ensure the continuation of critical research and development programs, while reducing funding for lower-priority research.
However, the NSF would see a slight funding dip; it will get $7.4 billion, which is $57 million below FY2016 andl and $150 million below the Administration’s request. That said, NSF would receive a $46 million increase for research and related activities to $680 million, including funding for programs that relate to STEM education. Offsets for the increase are in targeted reductions to equipment and construction costs.
The legislation contains $5.6 billion for NOAA, which is $185 million below the enacted level and $268 million below the President’s request. Funding is targeted to important priorities such as the National Weather Service, which receives $1.1 billion – $12 million above the President’s request. The bill reduces funding in “lower-priority” NOAA activities such as climate research and ocean services.
Of note, the legislation also includes several conservative policy provisions, including a prohibition on the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees into the United States, language designed to protect gun rights, and anti-abortion rights provisions. All provisions nearly guaranteed to warrant a veto threat from the White House.
Read the text of the legislation here.
The Department of Education unveiled its plan to allow dual enrollments in the Pell grant program today. The plan, which would take place in the 2016-2017 school year, would allow high school students, who are Pell-eligible, to pay for and enroll in college classes using Pell Grant funds.
At a cost of $20 million, this latest experimental site will benefit up to 10,000 low-income students who will be able to enroll in college coursework while still moving through high school. Dual enrollment and early college programs have been shown to boost high school grades and college persistence and graduation rates. However, most students cover the tuition out-of-pocket at nearly half of colleges that offer dual enrollment.
ED will publish a notice in the Federal Register next week inviting colleges, in partnership with public secondary schools or local education agencies, to apply to participate.
Read the Department of Ed’s blog post about the program here.
This week Dr. Francis Collins and senior leadership at NIH published a letter in Science reinforcing the agency’s commitment to basic science and introducing a revision to our grant application instructions. The updated instructions will ensure that the public health relevance statement in grant applications better reflects the full spectrum of the NIH mission and its commitment to support a robust, diverse research portfolio, including pursuit of basic knowledge. The full text of the letter can be viewed here.
This morning the House & Senate approved a $1.8 trillion fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending bill, averting a government shutdown and funding the federal establishment through September 2016. The measure passed with a 316-113 vote in the House followed by a 65-33 vote in the Senate. President Obama is said to sign the measure into law imminently. We encourage you to review our FY2016 Omnibus Analysis. Please let Christy Gullion, UW Director of Federal Relations (cgullion@uw.edu), or Sarah Castro, UW Associate Director of Federal Relations (smcastro@uw.edu), know if you have questions.
As noted in a previous post, highlights of the bill include:
In addition to omnibus appropriations, the bill includes a $680 million tax package, which makes permanent several tax provisions that were previously subject to extensions including the research and experimentation tax credit and several charitable donation tax breaks. More information on this can be found here.