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News and updates

Adding More Fuel to the Fire

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As expected, three more Senate Appropriations subcommittees cleared their respective spending bills yesterday:  Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Homeland Security. As predicted, the markup of the Homeland Security bill proved to be the most controversial, as that bill contains $5 billion for the border wall sought by the President.  Amendments to all three bills will be considered at the full committee markup, scheduled for tomorrow

While details about the measures will not be available until after the committee’s activities tomorrow, some initial information about the funding levels for a number of research agencies of interest to UW is available.  For example, the Republican press release on the bill provides for the following:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – $22.75 billion for NASA, $1.25 billion above the FY2019 enacted level, reflecting the need to fund infrastructure for human spaceflight to support for the accelerated plan to return to the moon by 2024 while supporting NASA’s science, technology development, aeronautics, and education activities.  Using the same account funding structure as in previous years, this includes:

  • $6.2 billion for Exploration, $1.2 billion above the FY2019 enacted level, to advance NASA’s human exploration program by providing $2.586 billion for the Space Launch System (SLS), $1.4 billion for the Orion crewed spacecraft to continue development of NASA’s next deep-space crewed capsule, $500 million for the proposed Lunar “Gateway,” and $744 million in funding for crewed lunar landers.
  • $6.9 billion for Science, equal to the FY2019 enacted amount, including $1.9 billion for Earth science, $2.6 billion for Planetary science, $1.2 billion for astrophysics, $423 million for the Webb telescope, and $735 million for Heliophysics.
  • $784 million for Aeronautics, which is $59 million above the FY2019 enacted level.  The funding will allow for ongoing low sonic boom experimental plane development, as well as supporting research in unmanned aircraft safety and airspace integration, and advanced aircraft composite and materials research.
  • $112 million is provided for the NASA’s STEM Engagement education programs, which were proposed to be eliminated in the budget request.  Within STEM Engagement, Space Grant is funded at $47 million, NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is funded at $22 million, the Minority University Research and Education Project is funded at $33 million, and STEM Education and Accountability projects is funded at $10 million.
  • $1.076 billion is provided for Space Technology, $149 million above the FY2019 enacted level.  Funding is included to advance projects in early stages of development that are expected to eventually demonstrate capabilities needed for future space exploration.

National Science Foundation (NSF) – $8.317 billion for NSF, $242 million above the FY2019 enacted level.  Funding is provided for basic research across scientific disciplines to support the development of effective STEM programs.

  • The bill provides $249 million above the FY2019 level for research and $27 million above FY2019 level for education activities.  These funds will allow NSF to provide more grants to highly competitive research projects and help provide opportunities to prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.
  • $190 million is provided for EPSCoR, an increase of $14 million above the FY2019 enacted level.

Meanwhile, the following information about NOAA comes from the Democratic side of the committee:

NOAA Research and Grants.  The bill rejects the administration’s request to cut funding for climate, weather, and oceans research by 41 percent, and instead funds the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research at $572 million.  Additionally, the bill again rejects the proposal to eliminate successful NOAA programs like Sea Grant, Coastal Zone Management (CZM) grants, the National Ocean and Coastal Security Fund, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS).  The Sea Grant program is funded at $75 million, $7 million above the fiscal year 2019 level, which yields $575 million in economic activity and supports 12,500 jobs and 1,300 American businesses.  CZM grants are funded at $76.5 million, $1 million above the fiscal year 2019 level, and the National Ocean and Coastal Security Fund is funded at the fiscal year 2019 level of $30 million. Our coasts and Great Lakes contribute about $350 billion to the economy annually and these State-Federal partnerships support sustainable economic development and environmental restoration. The bill also provides a $19 million increase above the fiscal year 2019 level to implement the new Pacific Salmon Treaty.

Weather Satellites.  This bill provides $755 million to continue construction of NOAA’s three new Polar Weather Satellites, equal to the fiscal year 2020 request.  Polar satellites provide 85 percent of the data used to forecast the weather, and are a vital component of Americans’ personal, property, and economic security.  One-third of U.S. GDP is affected by climate and weather, including farmers trying to protect livestock and crops, cities relying on energy from wind turbines and solar panels, and air travelers trying to get home safely and on time. Last year, the United States experienced 14 separate weather and climate disasters that cost more than $1 billion dollars each.  These storms would have cost far more and posed even greater threats to human safety without sufficient warning.  The bill also provides $304 million for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellites, equal to the fiscal year 2020 request

NOAA Ships.  The bill provides $75 million for a portion of a third NOAA ocean survey vessel.  NOAA currently has 15 ships in its aging fleet, with one vessel coming offline unexpectedly earlier this year. Further, that number will dwindle to 8 vessels by 2028.  The Committee has recently funded two additional vessels, but to maintain its current oceanographic capacity, NOAA needs to build not two but eight additional vessels in the next several years, as construction takes eight to ten years per ship.  These vessels enable NOAA to map the ocean floor, support weather forecasts, conduct oceanographic and climate research, and improve ecosystem and fisheries management. The bill also provides $60 million to improve NOAA’s existing vessels’ state of good repair.

With respect to the Interior bill, the Democratic press release includes the following bit of information:

Cultural Programs.—The bill provides $157 million each to the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, an increase of $2 million more for each endowment than the fiscal year 2019 enacted level, rejecting the Administration’s proposal to terminate these programs.  The bill provides $1.047 billion for the Smithsonian Institution, $4.1 million above fiscal year 2019 and $69.3 million above the President’s budget request.  Funding for the National Gallery of Art is increased to $172.2 million, and funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts increases to $43.29 million.

At the same time, the Republican press release includes the following information about the U.S. Geological Survey:

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – $1.2 billion for the USGS, an increase of $49 million above the FY2019 enacted level.  Within this amount, there are important program increases for energy and mineral resources, natural hazards, water resources, and deferred maintenance and capital improvement projects.

As noted before, there already was a significant amount of disagreement before yesterday afternoon between the two sides on how to move forward with respect to appropriations because of  differences on a host of issues, not the least of which was the border wall.  The House Democrats’ inquiry into possibly impeaching the President could add another wrinkle to not only the appropriations process but to governing as a whole.

After the announcement by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday afternoon about the inquiry, the White House agreed to release the transcript of the call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president.  It was released earlier today.

How much more fuel will be added to the political fire?  Can the various actors walk and chew gum at the same time?  Stay tuned.

How Far Can They Get?

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Even with significant disagreements between the two parties on a host of issues still on the table, the Senate appropriators are scheduled to try to move this week four of the spending bills for FY2020, which starts next Tuesday, October 1.

On Tuesday, three subcommittees are expected to take up their respective bills:  Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Homeland Security.  All three measures are expected to be controversial.  The markup of the Interior legislation is likely to spark debate on the Administration’s recent attempts to change environmental regulations while the CJS bill markup will likely touch on, among other others, adequate funding for the 2020 census as well as jostling on gun measures and immigration.  The FY2020 Homeland Security appropriations measure scheduled to be taken up tomorrow may prove to the most contentious, as Republicans will seek to include additional funding for a border wall, as requested by the President.

At this point in time, the full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up these three bills along with the Legislative Branch legislation during its markup on Thursday.  Even if the appropriations process gets that far, it remains to be seen what happens after that, as Congress is slated to take a two-week recess starting next Monday.  Deep divisions still remain, especially with respect to how much money is available to each of the 12 spending bills as well as the Administration’s push to transfer funds primarily from the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures for the border wall.

With the assumption that none of the 12 spending bills will be signed into law by the end of next Monday, the Senate is expected to act this week on a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through November 21.  The House approved it last week by a vote of 301 – 123.  Assuming it is adopted by the Senate, the President must still sign it into law.

With 11 Days To Go…

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Remember the two-year spending agreement that was reached earlier this summer that increased the budget caps for both FY2020 and FY2021? Well, that seems like a distant memory at this point.  When the agreement was reached, there were hopes that the FY2020 appropriations process would turn into a relatively smooth one.  Fast forward to today and we are now 11 days away from the start of FY2020 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law.

To try to prevent another shutdown like the one that marked the beginning of FY2019, the House took up and passed yesterday a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through November 21.  The Senate is expected to take it up next week.  There was even uncertainty about the fate of the CR, with the biggest holdup being House Democratic appropriations leadership’s misgivings about adding funds for subsidies to farmers impacted by the tariff fight with China.  Ultimately, enough of the concerns were addressed for floor action and passage.

In the Senate, with the hopes of a quick appropriations process dashed, appropriators are making progress where they can.  The full Appropriations Committee cleared three bills yesterday in a bipartisan manner:  Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services- General Government.  However, significant hurdles remain.  There still are differences between the two sides about the Administration’s attempts to move funds from other bills to build a wall on the Southern border.  Related to the wall push is the Democrats’ unhappiness about the “302(b)” allocations to the subcommittees, especially to the Labor-HHS subcommittee for its bill.  While the Labor-HHS-Education bill and the accompanying report have finally been released, the legislation has not yet moved due to Democratic objections on funding and Republican protests related to abortion policy.

The current version of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill would increase funding for NIH by $3 billion.  In addition, while the legislation would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $6,330, it would level fund the majority of the other student financial aid and higher education programs of most interest, including:

  • SEOG:  $840 million
  • Federal Work Study:  $1.1 billion
  • TRIO:  $1.06 billion
  • GEAR-UP:  $360 million
  • GAANN:  $23 million
  • Institute for Education Sciences (IES):  $615 million
  • Title VI International Education programs:  $72 million

The bill would also provide $100 million to federal student loan borrowers who would otherwise be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program except for the fact that they unknowingly made payments to ineligible repayment plans.  This amount would be combined with unobligated balances for similar efforts from prior years.

Stay tuned for further updates.

UW Joins Call for Congressional Action on DACA

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On Friday, August 30th UW signed a letter, alongside nearly 600 other US higher education institutions, urging Congress to take swift, bipartisan action on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The letter was circulated by The American Council on Education and is addressed to leadership in both the House and Senate. DACA provides a two-year protection from deportation for undocumented persons who arrived in the United States as children. The program has been suspended since September 2017, leaving recipients in limbo. The letter reminds Congress that the suspension of DACA is contrary to American interests and hinders a safe, positive, and productive academic environment. UW will continue to watch this issue closely and advocate for the interests of Dreamers on our campuses.

A full text of the letter is available here.

Some Progress Made but Uncertainties Remain

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The Senate Appropriations Committee made some progress yesterday but hurdles still remain in the FY2020 appropriations process.

In a bipartisan manner, the committee reported out the Energy and Water Development bill by a unanimous vote of 31 – 0. Bipartisan support for the bill was expected.  For the most part, research programs supported by the bill saw increases.  These include:

  • Science (total):  $7.215 billion, an increase of $630.0 million above FY2019 level
  • Within Science:
    • Advanced Science Computing Research:  $1.03 billion, an increase of $93.5 million
    • Basic Energy Sciences:  $2.33 billion, an increase of $159.0 million
    • Biological and Environmental Research:  $770.0 million, an increase of $65.0 million
    • Fusion:  $570.0 million in total (increase of $62.4 million) BUT $375.6 million for research, which represents a CUT of $56.4 million below the current level
    • High Energy Physics:  $1.07 billion, an increase of $85.0 million
    • Nuclear Physics:  $736.0 million, a $46.0-million increase
  • ARPA-E:  $428.0 million, an increase of $62.0 million

A copy of the committee report is available here and a copy of the bill text is available here.

At the same time, the committee’s proceedings on the defense bill and the allocations of funding for the 12 individual bills, or the “302(b)s”, were much more controversial and partisan.  Unlike the Energy bill, the defense measure was approved on a party-line vote of 16-15.  Much of conflict between the two sides was over the Trump Administration’s attempt to divert Pentagon funds to build the wall.  The future of this bill remains to be seen.

In terms of the actual contents of the bill, the legislation would fund overall basic research, or “6.1” research, at $2.63 billion, an increase of more than $98 million over current levels.  Applied research, or “6.2” research, would be funded at $5.98 billion, a decrease of $92.7 million.

Broken down further, 6.1 and 6.2 programs would be funded in the following manner:

  • Army 6.1:  $577.0 million, an increase of $70.1 million
  • Army 6.2:  $1.21 billion, an decrease of $377.1 million
  • Navy 6.1:  $682.5 million, a $2.6-million increase
  • Navy 6.2:  $1.12 billion, an increase of $149.9 million
  • Air Force 6.1:  $579.8 million, an increase of $18.4 million
  • Air Force 6.2:  $1.63 billion, an increase of $146.3 million
  • Defense-Wide 6.1:  $788.6 million, a $7.2-million increase
  • Defense-Wide 6.2: $1.977 billion, an $11.8-million decrease

The text of the legislation is available here and the report that accompanies the bill is available here.

Committee Democrats also raised objections to the 302(b) allocations unveiled by the chairman on Tuesday and they offered a counter proposal.  The Democratic alternative was  also defeated 16-15.  The dispute over the allocations could also complicate the appropriations process going forward in the Senate.  At this point, three more subcommittees– Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Financial Services– are scheduled to take up their respective bills next week.

With the new fiscal year scheduled to start October 1 and with none of the 12 funding bills signed into law, it is evident that some version of a continuing resolution will be needed to keep the government funded at least on a temporary basis.