In this Bridge post, continued from our Senate FY25 Appropriations Overview Part 1 blog, we’ll cover the Senate’s Interior-Environment, Energy-Water, and Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS) spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2025—detailing relevant funding levels and sharing committee report highlights that impact the Earth and space sciences.

 

Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations bill and accompanying report.

 

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

	FY2024	President’s Budget Request FY2025	AGU Request FY2025	Senate FY2025
USGS Overall	$1,455.43	$1,578.30	$1,850.00	$1,481.96
Ecosystems	$299.38	$326.13	—	$306.68
Energy & Mineral Resources	$101.09	$120.33	—	$105.33
Natural Hazards	$198.64	$210.64	—	$205.95
Water Resources	$288.77	$309.55	—	$294.27
Core Science Systems	$273.22	$313.02	—	$286.17
Science Support	$105.00	$118.23	—	$107.60
Facilities	$184.10	$190.40	—	$171.47

*Funding numbers in millions

 

Committee Report Highlights:

• Overall, the USGS receives a $26.53 million (1.8%) increase over its FY2024 spending level.
• Ecosystems—The USGS Ecosystems mission area receives a $7.3 million increase (2.4%).
  • The committee provides $33.12 million to the Environmental Health Program, a $3.58 million increase (12.1%).
  • The National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers remain flat funded at their FY2024 spending level of $63.12 million, as does the agency’s Land Change Science activities, which remain at $19.67 million.
• Energy & Mineral Resources—The USGS Energy & Mineral Resources mission area receives a $4.24 million increase (4.2%).
  • The recommendation funds the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) at $10.85 million in support of a prioritized nationwide program of topographic, geologic, and geophysical mapping to enhance understanding of the Nation’s mineral resource potential to better manage the supply of critical minerals.
  • The committee provides $34.52 million for the Energy Resources Program, a 6.7% increase, and $70.81 million for the Mineral Resources Program, a 3.0% increase.
• Natural Hazards—The USGS Natural Hazards mission area receives a $7.31 million increase (3.7%).
  • The Earthquake Hazards Program receives $95.67 million, a 3.3% increase, including $28.6 million for the continued development, operations, and maintenance of the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system to enable its completion in 2025.
  • The committee provides $38.3 million for the Volcano Hazards Program, including $19.65 million for the National Volcano early Warning and Monitoring System (NVEWS).
  • The Landslide Hazards Program is funded at no less than $16.69 million, a 15.7% increase, including FY2024 level funding for the Cooperative Landslide Hazards and Assessment Competitive Grant Program. Considering the increasing frequency of catastrophic wildfires, the committee also encourages the agency to prioritize efforts to predict and reduce the risk of post-wildfire landslides.
• Water Resources—The USGS Water Resources mission area receives a $5.5 million increase (1.9%).
  • The committee funds the Water Availability and Use Science Program at $66.59 million, representing a 1.1% cut to the program.
  • The National Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, however, receives an increase of $4.41 million (4.0%) over FY2024 funding levels, including $29.5 million to continue with the Next Generation water Observing System (NGWOS). The committee also encourages the USGS to work with research organizations and the power industry to identify and address critical information gaps to better prepare for adverse stream conditions that can threaten reliable generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity.
  • The committee shares that it believes that robust participation with universities in the hydrologic sciences is essential to building a talent pipeline as well as building capacity to support future hydrological research and operational efforts. To support this, the recommendation maintains FY2024 level funding within the Water Availability and Use Science Program and the National Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program to pursue such cooperative research agreements, including considering universities in Western states facing groundwater management challenges to build capacity and expertise in groundwater hydrologic sciences and locations where the agency has pending hydrological facilities as well as where there are other Federal operational hydrologic resources.
• Core Science Systems—The USGS Core Science Systems mission area receives a $12.95 million increase (4.7%).
  • The National Geospatial Program 3DEP program remains funded at its FY2024 spending level.
  • The committee acknowledges the importance of the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program to preserve critical data, improve the accessibility of geoscientific data, and provide financial and technical support to State Geological Surveys, along with the importance of making progress on the preservation and archival of the substantial backlog of federal and state geologic samples, so the recommendation includes $5 million to support the activities of this program.
• Science Support—USGS’ Science Support receives a $2.6 million increase (2.5%).
  • The recommendation includes $83.77 million for the Administration and Management Program, including $2.67 million for the Scientific Integrity, Diversity, Partnerships with Tribes and Support for Enterprise Science initiative.

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

	FY2024	President’s Budget Request FY2025	AGU Request FY2025	Senate FY2025
EPA Overall	$9,158.89	$10,993.65	—	$9,286.30
Science & Technology	$758.10	$1,009.96	$876.00	$783.70
Environmental Programs & Management	$3,178.03	$4,406.99	—	$3,255.49

*Funding numbers in millions

 

Committee Report Highlights:

• Overall, the EPA receives a $127.41 million increase (1.4%) over its FY2024 spending level.
• Science & Technology—The EPA’s Science and Technology account receives a $25.6 million increase (3.4%) over FY2024 funding levels.
  • The recommendation includes $9.5 million for extramural research grants (separate from the STAR Grant Program) to fund high-priority water quality and availability research. The committee also supports the EPA’s efforts to prioritize new federal research that will help farmers, ranchers, and rural communities manage PFAS impacts in agricultural settings and communities and provides $8 million to continue that work.
  • The committee recommends funds to continue the STAR program and directs the agency to distribute grants consistent with FY2024 spending levels, while expressing support for the agency’s efforts to focus the funding on research related to early life stage vulnerabilities to environmental stressors. The committee also shares its continued interest in the feasibility of reestablishing the Graduate Fellowship program and of implementing a mechanism to allow for submission of unsolicited, principal investigator-initiated proposals to STAR in order to capture innovative research ideas that may exist outside of the EPA and that advance its mission.
• Environmental Programs & Management—The EPA’s Environmental Programs and Management account receives a $77.46 million increase (2.4%) over FY2024 spending levels.

 

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

	FY2024	President’s Budget Request FY2025	AGU Request FY2025	Senate FY2025
Superfund Research Program (SRP)	$79.71	$83.04	$89.27	$81.61

*Funding numbers in millions

 

Committee Report Highlights:

• The committee’s recommendation represents a 2.4% increase over FY2024 funding levels.
• The $2 million provided in FY2024 is continued as base funds in FY2025 to further the Institute’s work on PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern.

 

 

House Energy-Water Appropriations bill and accompanying report.

 

Department of Energy (DOE)

	FY2024	President’s Budget Request FY2025	AGU Request FY2025	Senate FY2025
DOE Overall	$50,246.75	$51,977.60	—	$52,303.62
Office of Science	$8,240.00	$8,583.00	$9,500.00	$8,600.00
Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy	$3,460.00	$3,118.00	—	$3,440.00
ARPA-E	$460.00	$450.00	—	$459.15

*Funding numbers in millions

 

Committee Report Highlights:

• The committee recommends $3.44 billion for the Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, a cut of $20 million from FY2024 funding levels.
• Carbon Dioxide Removal receives $144 million spread over the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), and the Office of Science.
• The Senate provides the Office of Science with a 4.37% increase from FY2024, including at least $265 million for Quantum Information Science, $100 million to implement the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology [FASST] initiative, and $160 million across other artificial intelligence and machine learning programs across the Office.
• The committee expresses support for the Office of Science programs (Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce [RENEW] and the Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research [FAIR] initiatives), aimed at increasing HBCU and MSI engagement in the Office’s programs and provides $35 million for Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
• Basic Energy Sciences receives $2.56 billion, a 2.4% cut from FY2024, including at least $130 million for Energy Frontier Research Centers, $25 million for Batteries and Energy Storage Innovation Hub, and $20 million for the Fuels from Sunlight Innovation Hub.
  • The committee also establishes a cross-cutting Carbon Sequestration Research and Geologic Computational Science Initiative with $25 million in funding.
• Biological and Environmental Research receives $930 million, a 3.33% increase from FY2024, including $20 million to re-establish a lose-dose radiation research pilot program; at $115 million for four Bioenergy Research Centers; $93 million for the Joint Genome Institute.
  • Additionally, the Senate provides at least $96 million for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility and $120 million for Environmental System Science. The Environmental and Molecular Science laboratory receives at least $65 million.
• In coordination with NASA, NOAA, and NSF, the committee provides the Office $1 million “to coordinate with Advanced Scientific Computing Research to conduct research, including advanced earth system modeling, to characterize extremes, thresholds, and earth system tipping points, as well as to improve projections and risk assessments of the thresholds and onset of the most impactful tipping points.” The assessment should be done through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (GCRP).

 

 

House Labor-HHS Appropriations bill and accompanying report.

 

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

	FY2024	President’s Budget Request FY2025	AGU Request FY2025	Senate FY2025
NIEHS Overall	$913.98	$916.79	$982.53	$913.98

*Funding numbers in millions

 

Committee Report Highlights:

• Overall, NIEHS remains flat funded at FY2024 funding levels.
• $40 million is designated for NIEHS to continue research on the impacts that changing environmental conditions have on human health.
• The committee acknowledges that exposure to wildfire smoke is a reality for millions of Americans and no longer a rare occurrence and expresses concern that public health experts do not yet fully understand the risk posed by such exposure. Therefore, the committee encourages NIEHS to support research to understand the health risks associated with wildfire smoke exposure and any interventions that can be implemented to mitigate adverse health effects.

 

From our coverage of FY2025 funding levels across several blogs, you will notice that the House and Senate appropriations bills are far apart both in terms of recommended spending levels and report language. It is very unlikely that Congress will be able to complete the appropriations process before the 30 September deadline, which means passage of a continuing resolution (CR) is not only likely, but also necessary to avoid a government shutdown. While a CR will keep the government open and running at the previous years’ funding levels, new programs will be unable to start, old programs won’t be able to end, and programmatic funding cannot be altered. Under a government shutdown, all but essential operations of federal agencies are shutdown, but either scenario is harmful to science.

 

Given the concerning decreases to federal science funding and the unlikelihood that Congress will be able to reach an agreement on appropriations before the end of the fiscal year, August is a key time to talk to your legislators about the value of science (and funding that science) for your community – including your work or research.

 

Check out AGU’s resources for effectively communicating with your legislators or email us if you have any questions