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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 …
Senate Rejects Proposed Cuts, Expands Science Funding – Part 1
Just before the 2019 fiscal year ended on 30 September, the Senate Committee on Appropriations considered and advanced ten of its twelve fiscal 2020 bills, including spending bills that fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Over the next two posts, we’ll detail the Senate’s spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science …
October 2, 2019
Funding Update: Continuing Resolution keeps government open, appropriations continue
On Friday, 27 September, President Trump signed into law a continuing resolution (CR) that will keep the government funded through 21 November 2019. The CR extends 2019 funding levels into the start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, which began on 1 October. Although this means that science agencies will remain operational, while under a CR agencies cannot award new grants, plan new programs, or budget appropriately. Additionally, the CR can …
June 3, 2019
House Spending Bills Boost Science Funding: Part 2
Before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, the House Committee on Appropriations finished consideration of the major science funding bills. We reviewed several spending bills already in part one of our budget breakdown. In this post, we’ll take a deeper dive into the spending bill that funds the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) …
House Spending Bills Boost Science Funding: Part 1
Before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, the House Committee on Appropriations finished consideration of the major science funding bills, including the spending bills that fund the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Department of Energy, United States Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Forest Service. Over the next two posts, we’ll detail the spending and programmatic highlights for federal Earth and space science agencies. …
March 29, 2019
Sequestration is back; and science funding is in jeopardy.
The Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) required Congress to find ways to cut the deficit by capping funding for non-defense, including science, and defense programs. Congress never came to an agreement on ways to cut the deficit and therefore automatic across the board cuts for government spending, or sequestration, were invoked. Sequestration was supposed to be so bad that Congress would be forced to reach an agreement. Under the BCA, FY2020 defense …
