House and Senate Democrats have reintroduced the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act, which would double the maximum Pell award gradually over several years, expand the program to DACA recipients, and make other changes. The bill is sponsored by House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Patty Murray (D-WA).
Read more here.
After several weeks on the floor, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act– formerly known as the “Endless Frontier Act”– was cleared by the Senate yesterday. The final vote was 68 – 32.
The House has its own version of the bill, the NSF for the Future Act.
Last Friday, the same day as the release of the detailed Biden budget documents, the Senate confirmed Eric Lander as the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He was sworn in yesterday. As a result of being elevated to a cabinet-level post, this is the first time that the position of the head of OSTP required Senate confirmation.
More information about Lander and OSTP is available here.
As was reported on Friday, the Biden Administration released its detailed budget request late that afternoon. The government-wide budget documents are now available here. As agency-specific documents and details become available, we will provide updates.
Initial details about the budget requests for various agencies are provided below.
NSF
NSF as a whole would see a total of $10.12 billion under the Biden Administration proposal, an increase of 19.8 percent. The funding breaks down in the following manner:
Within R&RA, given the Administration’s emphasis on climate science, it is not surprising that the NSF budget proposal calls for an estimated increase of 19.0% for Geosciences over the FY2021 estimates.
Under the budget proposal, NSF would play a key role in a number of Administration-wide research priority areas. For example, the budget request calls for significant increases for the agency in the following areas:
The entire set of NSF budget documents is available here: https://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2022/toc.jsp.
NASA
NASA also released its detailed budget documents on Friday, which are available here.
Overall, NASA is slated for $24.8 billion, an increase of $1.53 billion, or 6.57 percent, over the current funding level.
The President budget request calls for funding the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at $7.93 billion, $630.6 million (8.6%) above the FY2021 level. Within SMD, the Administration proposal breaks down in the following manner:
The Aeronautics Directorate would be funded at $914.8 million while Space Technology would see $1.43 billion under the budget proposal.
The Office of STEM Engagement, which supports the Space Grant program, would see an increase of $20 million to $147.0 million. The requested amount allow Space Grant to increase by $6 million in FY2022.
A set of facts sheets about the different missions areas is available here.
NOAA
While the detailed budget documents are not yet available, a press release that highlights some of the key themes of the agency budget notes that NOAA would see an increase of $1.5 billion in its discretionary budget, an increase of 27.3 percent, taking the total to $7.0 billion.
A key driver of the increase is the renewed focus on climate change and the budget proposal calls for an additional investment of $855 million in activities related to the issue.
Detailed documents are expected in the coming days.
Department of Education
Unveiled in previous proposals, the Education Department (ED) budget request details a number of the Biden Administration’s key higher education priorities. ED proposes to boost a number of programs aimed at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), including those funded through Title III of the Higher Education Act. The Administration is asking $4.6 billion to eliminate tuition at MSIs for families with incomes below $125,000 per year. The budget also seeks $14.3 billion for a federal-state partnership to make community colleges tuition free.
The maximum Pell Grant award would be increased by $1,875 to $8,370. The SEOG and Federal Work Study programs would be level-funded at $880 million and $1.19 billion, respectively. At the same time, TRIO and GEAR UP would see increases of $200.8 million and $40 million, respectively; as a result, TRIO would be funded at $1.3 billion and GEAR UP would be funded at $408 million.
Title VI international education programs and GAANN would be level funded at $78 million and $23.5 million, respectively, while the Institute for Education Sciences would receive an increase of $95 million, or 14.8 percent, to $737.5 million.
ED’s budget documents are available here.
NIH
The budget request seeks $51.93 billion for NIH. This includes a proposal to increase the base budget by $2.5 billion while seeking $6.5 billion to create a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H).
Topline information about the Department of Health and Human Services, of which NIH is a part, is available here.
We will provide further details about the NIH budget after additional analysis.
USGS
Under the Biden Administration’s budget proposal, USGS is expected to play a significant role in the government’s efforts to address climate change. While the agency would seen an increase of $326.9 million over the FY2021 funding level to a total of $1.6 billion, $205.0 million of the increase would be directed to investments in climate science research.
Among the new investments would be $42.5 million for Climate Science Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) as well as tribal climate science activities. In fact, the budget for the CASC program would more than double under the budget request, going from $41.3 million to $84.4 million. The USGS would also contribute $60.0 million to the newly proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Climate (ARPA-C).
The Cooperative Research Unit program would see a modest increase of $0.5 million.
The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system—which is now capable of sending our public alerts along the entire West Coast—would be level-funded at $25.7 million under the Biden Budget.
Initial information about the UGSS budget proposal is available here.
Other agencies/ Additional details
Again, the Office of Federal Relations will continue to provide updates as more details become available and after further analysis.
Following up on its “skinny” budget document released in April, the Biden Administration is expected to make public its detailed FY2022 budget request later today.
While the April shell document highlighted a number of broader themes that the new Administration would like to pursue, the budget documents expected to today should fill out the questions regarding the budget details of each individual agency.
Please check back during the day as our office will provide details as they become available.