You are browsing the archive for Federal budget.
April 16, 2021
Biden’s first budget request includes significant gains for science
Last week, President Biden released his first Presidential Budget Request (PBR) for Fiscal Year 2022, which asks for big spending boosts for several science agencies. President Biden’s budget mirrors the four priorities declared by his Administration previously – pandemic response, economic recovery, climate change, and equity. Notably to address these issues, Biden’s budget proposes an all of government approach, with large focuses on climate change and transformational research. While we wait for a more detailed budget with programmatic requests for …
November 19, 2020
Science stalls in Senate spending bills: Part 2
While Congress is still at odds over COVID-19 pandemic relief, we are nearly two months past the end of the fiscal year without a new budget. The House passed its spending bills in July, the Senate delivered their FY21 spending in mid-November. We are breaking down the spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science agencies, including highlights from the reports and comparing funding across the House, Senate, …
Science stalls in Senate spending bills: Part 1
While Congress is still at odds over COVID-19 pandemic relief, we are nearly two months past the end of the fiscal year without a new budget. The House passed its spending bills in July, the Senate delivered their FY21 spending in mid-November. Over the next two posts, we will detail the spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science agencies, including highlights from the reports and comparing funding …
July 23, 2020
Science Sees Slight Uptick in House Spending Bills: Part 2
Amid negotiations for further relief packages surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the House Committee on Appropriations finished consideration of the major science funding bills, including the spending bills that fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. Following on to our previous post, we will detail the spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science agencies. National …
July 17, 2020
Science Sees Slight Uptick in House Spending Bills: Part 1
Amid negotiations for further relief packages surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the House is still moving forward with FY2021 spending bills. The House Committee on Appropriations has finished consideration of the major science funding bills. Over the next two posts, we will detail the spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science agencies. Today’s post covers the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Department of Energy, U.S. Geological …
February 13, 2020
FY21 Presidential Budget Request Breakdown
The U.S. federal appropriations season is upon us once again. On 10 February 2020, President Donald J. Trump released his Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2021. This is the first step in the appropriations negotiation process that ideally concludes before current fiscal year ends on 30 September. While a few vital science programs were funded, overall the president’s proposed budget is a severe disappointment for science and ignores the many …
December 23, 2019
FY2020 Spending Deal Passes with Average Marks for Science
After a delayed start, drawn-out negotiations, and two Continuing Resolutions, the Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations were signed into law Friday, 20 December. Overall, federal science agency funding saw modest boosts. However, the budget fails to provide substantial increases for key agencies and programs like the National Weather Service and the National Science Foundation. The most generous increase came from the United States Geological Survey’s Facilities spending– with a plan to …
November 27, 2019
Funding an Energy Transition
As appropriators are still trying to finalize the 2020 budget, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development sat down last week for a hearing about the DOE’s role in addressing climate change. The main thematic questions of the hearing were: What technologies will help move us into the future sustainably, and how can DOE facilitate the energy transition? This lively and lengthy hearing made a strong case for not …
November 20, 2019
Science Funding Remains Frozen
Nearly two months into fiscal year (FY) 2020, the appropriations process to fund the federal government continues. On Tuesday, 19 November, the House passed another continuing resolution (CR), keeping the government funded at FY2019 levels, ahead of the 21 November deadline granted by a recent CR signed into law in September. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation on Thursday, 21 November. The new CR will keep the government funded for another four weeks …
October 3, 2019
Senate Rejects Proposed Cuts, Expands Science Funding – Part 2
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 …
