October 3, 2019

Senate Rejects Proposed Cuts, Expands Science Funding – Part 2

Posted by bphilip

Just before the 2019 fiscal year ended on 30 September, the Senate Committee on Appropriations marked up and advanced ten of its twelve fiscal 2020 bills. We did a deep dive into one of the major science funding bills in Part 1 of our Senate appropriations breakdown. In this post, we’ll take a closer look into the spending bills that fund the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

 

United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million) FY19 FY20 President’s Budget Request (PBR) FY20 Senate Appropriations Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY19 Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY20 PBR
Overall $1,160.00 $983.50 $1,209.60 4.28% 22.99%
Ecosystems $156.88 $141.05 $225.02 43.43% 59.53%
Land Resources $158.30 $0.00 $0.00
Energy, Minerals, & Environmental Health $111.74 $86.07 $90.04 -19.42% 4.61%
Natural Hazards $166.26 $145.03 $170.84 2.75% 17.80%
Water Resources $226.31 $179.92 $228.81 1.10% 27.17%
Core Science Systems $117.90 $207.19 $221.69 88.03% 7.00%
Science Support $102.83 $102.90 $96.83 -5.83% -5.90%
Facilities $120.38 $121.30 $176.38 46.52% 45.41%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report:

  • The Committee supports the proposed budget restructure and realignment which consolidates the function of Land Resources and Environmental Health and which also realigns the structure of the Ecosystems, Water Resources, and Core Science Systems mission areas. This includes movement of all the Environmental Health programs into Ecosystems.
  • The new Land Management Research Program receives $55.4 million and the Cooperative Research Units program receives $18.4 million.
  • The committee report provides $44.5 million for Climate Adaption Science Centers, with the expectation that funding will be distributed in a manner that ensures “all Centers remain open and at current levels.”
  • The Committee supports improvements of topographic, geological, and geophysical mapping and provides $10.6 million for the new critical minerals’ initiative.
  • The Committee expresses concern about the inconsistency of the national seismic hazard maps and provides $2 million to ensure all 50 states have maps.
  • Report language indicates acknowledgement by the Committee of the risks related to geomagnetic field disturbances and includes $1.5 million for the completion of “a magnetotelluric survey of the earth’s electric and magnetic fields on a regular grid across the conterminous United States.”
  • The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) maintains a base level funding of $7.7 million for its Alaska Mapping and Map Modernization project.

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million) FY19 FY20 PBR FY20 Senate Appropriations Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY19 Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY20 PBR
Overall $8,058.49 $6,068.49 $9,010.84 11.82% 48.49%
Science & Technology $717.72 $463.06 $713.26 -0.62% 54.03%
Environmental Programs & Management $2,643.30 $1,845.27 $2,623.58 -0.75% 25.70%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report:

  • The STAR Grants program remains funded at fiscal year 2019 funding levels, including funding for the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers.
  • The Committee urges full implementation of EPA’s Plan to Increase Access to Results of EPA-Funded Scientific Research and directs the agency to submit an implementation update in its 2021 fiscal year budget request.

 

Forest Service
Budget (rounded to the nearest million) FY19 FY20 PBR FY20 Senate Appropriations Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY19 Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY20 PBR
Overall $6,087.13 $7,086.00 $7,471.44 22.74% 5.44%
Forest & Rangeland Research $300.00 $254.50 $306.13 2.04% 20.29%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report:

  • The Senate spending bill provides $36.8 million for research and development programming, including $2 million for supporting the existing work of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative.
  • The Committee expresses continued concern that the research program “does not focus on key areas where the Service’s management responsibilities will benefit the most” and directs the Forest Service to report on its research restructuring progress.

 

Department of Energy (DOE)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million) FY19 FY20 PBR FY20 Senate Appropriations Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY19 Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY20 PBR
Overall $35,685.32 $31,501.93 $39,031.91 9.38% 23.90%
Office of Science $6,585.00 $5,545.97 $7,215.00 9.57% 30.09%
ARPA – E $366.00 $0.00 $428.00 16.94%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report:

  • The Senate bill provides $97 million for Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling, with the agency directed to use appropriated funding for Earth system modeling, and regional and global model analysis.
  • The Committee also provides $20 million to expand the terrestrial-aquatic interfaces pilot initiated in fiscal year 2019.
  • The Committee rejects the President’s “short-sighted” proposal to terminate ARPA-E and adamantly prohibits DOE from using any funds for the purpose of planning, developing, implementing, or pursuing the termination of ARPA-E.

 

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)*
Budget (rounded to the nearest million) FY19 FY20 PBR FY20 Senate Appropriations Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY19 Percent Change Senate FY20 vs FY20 PBR
Overall $853.71 $733.43 $896.73 5.04% 22.27%

*Note: the information in the above chart and the highlights below are based on the draft bill and report that is still pending before the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report:

  • The committee report includes $3 million for “the continued funding and expansion of research on the health effects of environmental exposures directly related to the consequences of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.”

 

NEXT STEPS

 

While a government shutdown was avoided, thanks to the recent passage of a continuing resolution, Congress has only eight weeks to negotiate and pass all twelve spending bills and send to the President for approval. The ten spending bills advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee will now go before the full Senate for a vote, leaving two bills awaiting action.

 

While the Senate rejected major cuts to science funding proposed by the White House and provided strong funding for science overall, several science agencies still face significant spending and programmatic cuts, especially NOAA and NASA. Contact your legislators today and share the value and importance of fully funded scientific programming.