AAS Public Policy Blog

Countdown: 11 days, until federal funding for FY2011 ends and the new federal fiscal year FY2012 begins and, following the new ‘business as normal’ trend, Congress has yet to finish their appropriations work. While the Senate is scrambling to complete appropriations bills and the House has completed nearly all of their bills, there is no chance the required conference committees will be able to complete their work before the fiscal year ends. And so, preparing for the inevitable, House Appropriations Committee Chairman, Harold Rogers (R-KY) introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government running after September through November 18th. The Senate is likely to follow suit in short order.

The CR continues funding for the federal government at a rate of $1.043 trillion – the total amount to which the Congress and the White House agreed in the recent debt-ceiling legislation. This is a 1.4% cut from the FY2011 level.

Both the House and Senate Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations subcommittees have marked-up their respective bills and they wait on the calendar for a floor vote before the appropriation process goes into conference to produce a final appropriations bill. These subcommittees have jurisdiction over NASA and NSF and other agencies including the Departments of Commerce and Justice.

NASA

(Point of Information: The NASA FY2012 President’s Budget Request (PBR) was prepared two different ways, a Full Cost View and a Separate Labor Allocation. Both appropriations bills for NASA use the Full Cost accounting.)

The Senate was very detailed in the report language of their bill (S.1572) detailing the budget for NASA. The total NASA budget is proposed to decrease to $17.9 billion, $509 million less than FY2011 enacted levels. Out of the nine directorates within NASA, only three increased compared to FY2011, including the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the Space Technology Directorate.

All divisions within SMD increased compared to FY2011 enacted levels except for the Heliophysics Division, which remained flat compared to the PBR for FY2012 at $622.3 million. The Planetary Science Division would increase to $1.5004 billion, $49.65 million above FY2011. The Astrophysics Division included James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the FY2011 budget, which totaled $1.1079 billion with JWST being $476.8 million of the total, almost 40%, leaving $631.1 million for other missions and research. In FY2012, the JWST was moved out of the Astrophysics Division budget to become an agency priority and its own line item. The Senate proposes to fund JWST in FY2012 at a level of $530 million, an increase of $53.2 million over FY2011. Under the Senate plan, the Astrophysics Division would receive $682.2 million, an increase of $51.1 million over FY2011.

The Senate’s line item programs within the Planetary Science Division with funding increases compared to FY2011 enacted levels are Planetary Science Research, Mars Exploration, Outer Planets, and Technology. The programs within the Planetary Science Division with funding decreases are the Lunar Quest Program, Discovery, and New Frontiers.

The programs within the Astrophysics Division with proposed Senate funding increases compared to FY2011, (excluding JWST) are Astrophysics Research and the Astrophysics Explorer Program. Programs within the Astrophysics Division with funding decreases are Cosmic Origins and Physics of the Cosmos. The Exoplanet Exploration program remained flat.

At this time we do not have detailed line-item information for the FY2011 enacted levels for the Heliophysics Division to compare individual programs and line items to the proposed FY2012 Senate appropriations.

The Senate report includes stringent language for NASA to avoid cost overruns, improve management, and make its programs more affordable. Other details in the report include a $10 million appropriation for the restart of domestic production of Plutonium-238 for planetary science missions and a statement of strong support for the completion of the James Webb Space Telescope, while imposing a cost cap of $8 billion.

The House FY2012 Appropriations bill (H.R.2596) passed earlier this year proposes to decrease the total NASA budget to $16.810 billion, a $1.637 billion decrease from FY2011. Of all the directorates only Aeronautics and Space Technology increase — SMD would decrease by $415.7 million. Within SMD, the JWST is proposed to be canceled, the Heliophysics Division decreases to $622 million (flat compared to the FY2012 PBR), the Astrophysics Division increases slightly to $683 million, and the Planetary Science Division increases to $1.5 billion.

NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) total budget is proposed to decrease in the FY2012 Senate Appropriation bill to $6.698 billion, $161.87 million lower than FY2011 enacted levels.

The important funding accounts in NSF for astronomy are the Research and Related Activities (R&RA), which includes funding for astronomy research, and the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC), which includes funding for construction of large astronomy infrastructure. Some astronomy is also supported through the Office of Polar Programs and even other research Divisions, but all are incorporated into the R&RA line item. The Senate proposes to reduce the R&RA account to $5.443 billion, $120.87 million less than FY2011 and to keep MREFC flat compared to FY2011 at $117.06 million, while providing an option for up to $100 million from the R&RA account. A transfer would bring the total of the MREFC amount within $7 million of the PBR. Unfortunately, the detailed impact at the Division level is not included in the Senate report.

The House FY2012 Appropriations bill proposes to keep funding for NSF flat at $6.859 billion compared to FY2011, but increases R&RA to $5.6069 billion and decreases MREFC to $100 million.

The report for the Senate bill includes language related to the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT) selection process, the third priority for large-scale ground-based recommendations by the National Research Council’s 2010 decadal survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. There were no statements on the first priority, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

Detailed tables of NASA and NSF funding:

NASA Budget Compared

NSF Budget Compared

American Astronomical Society Statement on the James Webb Space Telescope

Adopted 7 July 2011

The proposal released on July 6 by the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to terminate the James Webb Space Telescope would waste more taxpayer dollars than it saves while simultaneously undercutting the critical effort to utilize American engineering and ingenuity to expand human knowledge. Such a proposal threatens American leadership in the fields of astrophysics and advanced space technology while likely eliminating hundreds, if not thousands, of high-tech jobs. Additionally, this proposal comes before the completion of a revised construction plan and budget for a launch of JWST by 2018. The United States position as the leader in astronomy, space science, and spaceflight is directly threatened by this proposal.

The JWST is the highest-ranked mission in the National Academy of Science’s Astronomy and Astrophysics decadal survey released in 2000 and remains a high priority for the Nation’s astronomers in this decade as well, as the revolutionary successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This survey, conducted once every 10 years by hundreds of the Nation’s leading scientists, prioritizes — based on scientific merit and impact — projects proposed by the scientific community that require significant government support for completion. These reports represent a community consensus on the efforts necessary to advance our knowledge of the universe. The potential of JWST to transform astronomy underlies many of the activities recommended in the 2010 decadal report released last August. JWST is designed to observe well beyond Hubble’s capabilities. It is expected to serve thousands of astronomers in the coming decades to revolutionize our understanding of our place in the Universe, just as Hubble has done since its completion and launch just over two decades ago.

The JWST’s completion, launch, and operation will unveil new knowledge about the earliest formation of stars and planets and on a wide range of additional advanced scientific questions, including many not yet formulated. As was true with the Hubble Space Telescope, recognized as a tremendous success by the public, scientists, and policy-makers, building the most advanced telescopes comes with the risk of unexpected costs and delays. However, the whole Nation can rightly take pride in the engineering and scientific accomplishment that the completion and launch of such instruments represents. With the help of important international partners, we are the only nation that could lead such an effort; we should not shirk from completing the project when the most difficult engineering challenges have already been overcome. As stated in the Casani report, an independent review of project readiness completed late last year, “The JWST Project has made excellent progress in developing the difficult technologies required for its successful operation, and no technical constraints to successful completion have been identified.” The mirrors stand ready and waiting for integration into the spacecraft. The telescope has passed both preliminary design review and critical design review. It is time to complete construction and look ahead to JWST’s launch and science operations.

The American Astronomical Society calls upon all members of Congress to support JWST to its completion and to provide strong oversight on the path to this goal. Too many taxpayer dollars have already been spent to cancel the mission now; its benefits far outweigh the remaining costs. We must see the mission through. We are a great nation and we do great things. JWST represents our highest aspirations and will be one of our most significant accomplishments.

AAS Council Resolutions and Statements

Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer

Background

As part of the annual appropriations process, subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee are the first to draft proposed appropriations bills for the coming fiscal year. On July 6, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and Science posted a press release and the draft bill language on their website for the bill that funds NASA, NSF and other science related agencies along with the Departments of Commerce and Justice. On Thursday, July 7 at 10:15am, the subcommittee will “mark up”, or debate, amend and rewrite proposed legislation. It is highly likely that the bullet points included in the press release will remain intact in the final marked-up version of the bill.

The press release is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=250023

The draft bill text is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CJSFY12SUBCxml.pdf (note, the specific language cutting JWST is not included in this bill, it will appear in the subcommittee report, which should become available after the markup, which takes place on July 7 at 10am).

A summary table of the top-line funding for each department or agency is here: http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FY2012CJSSummaryTable.pdf

Details

The bill represents a proposal from the House for the funding levels for FY2012, not an actual reduction or cut. The Senate must act and the two houses must meet and resolve differences in their funding proposals before the bill is finalized and sent to the president for his signature. Often, this process takes many months and sometimes even ends in an omnibus appropriations bill being created instead of individual bills being passed. In any event, this proposal from this appropriations subcommittee is but the first step in a much longer process.

Along with the proposed termination of the JWST, NASA’s overall budget is proposed to be reduced by $1.6B compared to last year’s level and $1.9B lower than the president’s proposed level for NASA. NSF is also impacted, with a proposed budget about $907M less than the president’s proposed level, but in-line with last year’s funding level.

Other cuts are mentioned in the press release, but it is difficult to assess their impact until the full report language is available. In some years, reductions actually represented movements of one area of work (e.g. the Deep Space Network) from one budget line to another. When the full details become available, the AAS will issue an Informational Email describing them and their impact.

What to Do Now

Obviously, this proposal from the House Appropriations Subcommittee for CJS is upsetting. The astronomy community knows the value of the JWST, recognizes that nearly all technical hurdles have been overcome and that a review of the program’s management, budget and completion plan is nearly complete. It is important to remember that the release of the House versions of the appropriations bills is just the first step in the lengthy appropriations process. For now, this termination is a proposal and one we should take seriously with the knowledge that making a few communications now to legislators will not be the end of a process, but merely the beginning. The outrage and upset the community is experiencing cannot be merely today or this week, we must ration our energy to effectively participate throughout the whole appropriations process.

When it is particularly effective for AAS members to write or contact their members of Congress, we will issue an Action Alert. Action Alerts should be read carefully and, if possible, acted upon expeditiously. We only send them when the action of our members will have a direct and positive impact. If you haven’t met your member of Congress, don’t know who they are exactly or aren’t quite sure how the appropriations process proceeds, take the time now to educate yourself. The AAS provides a web page under the public policy pages that allows you to identify your members of Congress and obtain their contact information. The AAAS maintains a comprehensive web page that provides educational information about the budget process with historical information about funding as well as regular updates on the appropriations process throughout the year at www.aaas.org/spp/rd. Other resources are linked to from the AAS public policy pages.

AAS Statement on Proposed JWST Cancellation The AAS leadership is crafting a statement on the proposed JWST cancellation, which will be released today and is working to formulate responses to the other proposed cuts to science that the subcommittee’s press release describes. We will keep our members informed and help find ways to have a meaningful impact on the appropriations process.

The House, Senate, and White House came to an agreement on federal spending for FY 2011 two hours before a possible government shutdown on the night of 8 April 2011.  With negotiations completed, the House and Senate voted overnight to pass a stopgap measure to fund the government through Thursday, 14 April, preventing a break in the dissemination of federal funds.  Democrats and Republicans agreed to pass a continuing resolution (CR) with the negotiated spending cuts that will fund the government through 30 September 2011 and send it to the President by Thursday.

Although a government shutdown was averted there are still repercussions in federal support for the sciences and scientific research.

Overall, the CR totals $1.049 trillion in funding, which is a reduction of $78.5 billion from the FY2011 President’s budget request and $37.6 below FY2010 levels.  The cuts include $12 billion already cut in the previous three CR and $28 billion in new cuts.  These cuts affect the areas where the field of astronomy and astrophysics receives most of its federal support.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be funded at $6.9 billion. This is a decrease of $551 million from the FY2011 budget request and $53 million below FY2010 enacted levels.

NASA will be funded at $18.5 billion, a reduction of $515 million below the FY2011 budget request.  The level for NASA Science Mission Directorate shall be $4.9 billion, a decrease of $61 million from the FY2011 request and an increase of $447 million over the FY2010 enacted levels.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations issued a press release stating that the CR, “Preserves [a] NASA portfolio balanced among science, aeronautics, technology and human space flight investments, holding NASA’s feet to the fire to build the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle and the heavy lift Space Launch System.” [01]

The CR also has a statement prohibiting NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy to engage in activities with China.

SEC. 1340. (a) None of the funds made available by this division may be used for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company unless such activities are specifically authorized by a law enacted after the date of enactment of this division.

(b) The limitation in subsection (a) shall also apply to any funds used to effectuate the hosting of official Chinese visitors at facilities belonging to or utilized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. [02]

This provision may be a congressional response to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s controversial trip to China.

An article in Nature at the time of the trip on October 13, 2010, quotes a 12 October letter to President Obama from Representative John Culberson (R-TX) states: “I do not believe it is appropriate for the Administrator to meet with any Chinese officials until Congress is fully briefed on the nature and scope of Mr. Bolden’s trip.” [03]

The Department of Energy Office of Science receives $4.9 billion, a reduction of $252 million below the FY2011 budget request and $35 million below FY2010 enacted levels.

More details will be posted on the AAS Public Policy Blog at blog.aas.org.

You can view the full text of the legislation at: http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF1121/FloorText/FINAL2011xml.pdf

Both the House and Senate have released summaries of the legislation at: House http://appropriations.house.gov/files/41211SummaryFinalFY2011CR.pdf http://appropriations.house.gov/files/41211ProgramCutsListFinalFY2011CR.pdf

Senate http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm

[01] http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm?method=news.download&id=c3d65ae0-0208-4309-9f4b-cdc5f7aac364

[02] p. 216-217 of http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF1121/FloorText/FINAL2011xml.pdf

[03] http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/10/nasaadministratorschina_visi.html

The Coalition of National Science Funding has reviewed the negotiated deal between the House, Senate and the White House on FY2011 federal spending and release details on the affect of the spending cuts on the National Science Foundation (NSF):

The Appropriations Committee has released details of the full-year FY 2011 Continuing Resolution.  The numbers for NSF are attached below as a chart.  Overall, the Committee cut NSF by $52 million. or .8 percent (R&RA by $42 million, and EHR by $10 million).  In addition, there is an across the board cut of .2 percent for all non-defense programs, projects, and accounts.  With the across the board cut NSF will end up with a reduction of $65.75 million overall, or 1 percent, below the FY 2010 enacted levels.  See the chart below for the minor reductions in the other accounts due to the across-the-board cut.

The chart below already accounts for the transfer of the $54 million Coast Guard (CG) transfer – some of the press releases from the Appropriations Committees are going off the slightly inflated numbers that include $54 million for the Coast Guard.

FY 2011 House Full Year CR
(Dollars in Millions)
Account	FY 2010 Current Plan	FY 2011 Request	FY 2011 Full Year CR	Change over FY 2010 Plan			Change over FY 2011 Request
				Amount	ATB	Percent	Amount	Percent
R&RA	$5,563.92	$5,964.83	$5,510.79	-$42.00	-$11.1	-0.8%	-454.04	-7.6%
EHR	872.76	892.00	$861.01	-10.00	-$1.75	-1.1%	-30.99	-3.5%
MREFC	117.29	165.19	$117.06	-	-$0.23	0.0%	-48.13	-29.1%
AOAM	300.00	329.19	$299.40	-	-$0.60	0.0%	-29.79	-9.0%
NSB	4.54	4.84	$4.53	-	-$0.01	0.0%	-0.31	-6.4%
OIG	14.00	14.35	$13.97	-	-$0.03	0.0%	-0.38	-2.6%
Total, NSF	$6,872.51	$7,370.40	$6,806.76	-$65.75	-$13.75	-1.0%	-$563.64	-7.6%

Totals may not add due to rounding. FY11 RRA numbers adjusted for $54 million CG Transfer ATB = Across the Board Cut of .2 percent

The Appropriations Committees for the House and Senate have released general summaries of the CR which include some details on cuts in federal support for science which can be found at:

House http://appropriations.house.gov/files/41211SummaryFinalFY2011CR.pdf http://appropriations.house.gov/files/41211ProgramCutsListFinalFY2011CR.pdf

Senate http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm

You can view the full text of the legislation at: http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF1121/FloorText/FINAL2011xml.pdf

The AAS regularly provides testimony to Congressional committees that have direct impact on astronomy and astrophysics.  Typically, this testimony takes the form of submitted written remarks, which are considered by the committees as they pursue their legislative activities.

An opportunity recently arose for the AAS to provide oral testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.  It is not common for an organization to be selected to provide actual oral testimony and the Society moved quickly to prepare and submit five pages of written testimony, while President Debra Elmegreen prepared four minutes of oral testimony to augment the written document.  The focus was to support astronomy broadly by describing the decadal survey, its priorities and the community support for the survey, following our policy of supporting astronomy and related disciplines broadly.

President Elmegreen completed her testimony on Friday during the hearing of the subcommittee and it is included below in its entirety.  The five page written testimony is linked as a .pdf file.

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Testimony of Dr. Debra M. Elmegreen, President of the American Astronomical Society

Before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies On Astronomy and Astrophysics in the FY 2012 Budget

March 11, 2011

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on astronomy in the FY2012 budget from my perspective as President of the American Astronomical Society, the organization for professional astronomers in North America. The AAS supports the NASA, NSF, and DOE budget requests as they pertain to astronomy, and the Office of Nuclear Energy plutonium- 238 production restart.

We are in a golden age of discovery for astronomy, from planets around nearby stars to dark energy and the early Universe. We stand poised to answer big questions: Are we alone? How did the Universe begin? What is it made of? Astronomy inspires generations of scientists and engineers through discoveries about the Universe revealed by NSF-supported telescopes on the ground, like the new ALMA radio telescope, and NASA missions in space, like Hubble Space Telescope, and Kepler, which finds Earth-like planets. Each year, a quarter of a million college students enroll in astronomy courses, including 15% of all future K-12 teachers.

The US astronomical community just completed its 6th decadal survey to determine the most compelling research and to prioritize the projects to accomplish those goals. This well-respected survey process has helped make the US a world astronomy leader. The report, “New Worlds, New Horizons,” produced by the National Academies and funded by NASA, NSF and DOE, provides policy makers with a prioritized set of initiatives for federal support. It is based on input from over 1000 astronomers, an independent assessment of costs and risks, and budgetary constraints. The recommended program is a balance of small, medium, and large projects, and builds on international, private, and interagency partnerships.

The top large ground project is the revolutionary Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, enabling time domain discoveries by rapid repeated sky scans. It will find small Near-Earth Asteroids (as Congressionally mandated) and distant supernovae (which map out the Universe’s acceleration). Nightly acquisition of over 10,000 Gigabytes of data will drive new methods for data archiving. LSST will be unique worldwide, highlighting US leadership.

Our recommended Mid-Scale Innovations Program will allow a competed program in NSF for medium-cost projects. Our top-ranked medium project is CCAT, a large sub-millimeter telescope that will complement ALMA by surveying regions forming planets and galaxies.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and was the top-ranked program in the 2000 Decadal Survey. It underlies many of the 2010 decadal recommended activities. JWST will transform astronomy, through observations of the first stars and galaxies, black holes, and planets in formation. We support JWST.

A timely launch of JWST also enables this decadal survey’s top-ranked large space program, the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope. Its goals encompass two high priority astronomy areas – Earth-like planets and Dark Energy. Our leadership in dark energy studies is at risk if a WFIRST launch this decade or a suitable partnership with the European Space Agency is not achieved.

The mid-scale Explorer missions in NASA’s Astrophysics Division address other important issues: they provide rapid launches for timely research, as with the Cosmic Background Explorer that led to a Nobel prize, and they enable instrument training for young scientists.

An issue critical to planetary science is the production of plutoninum-238, used to power missions to the outer solar system such as the Cassini mission to Saturn. There is no viable energy alternative for deep space missions. A production re-start is vital to avoid delayed missions and escalating costs. We urge funding the plutonium restart.

In closing, I thank Representative Wolf for your bipartisan leadership in supporting science and advanced research. Your efforts, along with Representative Mollohan and this committee, have benefited science broadly and astronomy in particular. I can think of no more important way to rebuild America than to support advanced research and maintain US leadership in science, engineering and technology. Thank you.

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AAS Testimony to Congress

The President released his budget for the fiscal year 2012 (FY12) on February 14 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget). The President has set a five-year freeze on all discretionary non-defense spending in response to challenging economic times and to reduce the national deficit.  The President has confirmed his commitment in the State of the Union address to, “out innovate, out educate, and out build” the rest of the world by supporting scientific research in the FY12 budget.  From the Analytical Perspectives on the Budget,

“The President’s 2012 Budget maintains his commitment to double Federal investment in key basic research agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science; and the laboratories of the Department of Commerce (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).”

The 2012 budget cycle starts before the budget for 2011 has been finalized.  The FY11 budget has yet to be signed into law.  The government has been operating on a series on continuing resolutions (CR) that fund government agencies at FY10 levels.  The current CR will expire on March 4.  House Republicans, who have the majority, have passed H.R.1 a CR funding government operations for the rest of FY11, while making the largest single discretionary spending cut in the history of the nation.

The President’s request for additional scientific research and development will be debated in Congress. If you would like to take action and let policymakers know how important it is to invest in our future through scientific research, development, and education, contact your legislators now (http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml).

The New World New Horizons Decadal Survey for astronomy and astrophysics was completed before the federal budget process was embargoed last September.  The intent was that the survey could impact decisions on funding for the recommendations.  Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division Director for NASA,  and Jim Ulvestad, Astronomy Division Director for NSF, have presented at their respective advisory committee meetings how they are implementing the recommendations of the Decadal Survey with little or no increase in the federal budget for astronomy or astrophysics.  Both advisory committees have commended the directors on managing to incorporate the survey recommendations in the economic constraints of the FY12 budget.

The NASA budget is available at nasa.gov/about/budget.  Note that NASA is not listed as a basic research agency to be on the doubling path for federal investment.

NASA is currently trying to reconcile between the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which gives $19 billion, and the CR that funds at FY10 levels.  For FY12 NASA is requesting the same amount it received in FY10, $18.7 billion.  The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) overall increased, while Space Operations took a significant cut in the Space Shuttle program.

The change in management of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) resulted in it being taken out of the Astrophysics Division budget and placed as a separate line item in the SMD budget.  In FY10 the Astrophysics budget received $1086M, of which $438.7M was JWST.  The FY12 request for Astrophysics is $682.7M and JWST is $373.7M, totalling $1056M.  Overall, the funding for Astrophysics (including JWST) went down 3% compared to FY10.  The projected outyear funding for JWST continues at $375M through FY2016.  The outyear funding will change once the bottom up review of the JWST budget is completed in the coming months.

Astrophysics requested $683M, a 6% increase from the enacted FY10 budget.  The other Science Divisions also increased compared to FY10: Earth by 25%, Planetary by 13%, Heliophysics by 2%.

The proposed cuts by the House decrease the NASA budget by $578.7M compared to the FY11 request.

(in millions of $)	FY10 Request	FY10 Enacted	FY11 Request	CR11 Cuts to FY11	FY12 Request	% to FY10
NASA	18686	18725	19000	18421	18724	0
SMD	4477	4498	5006	–	5017	12
Earth	1405	1439	1802	–	1797	25
Planetary	1346	1364	1486	–	1541	13
Heliophysics	605	608	642	–	622	2
Astrophysics	1121	647	1076	–	683	6
JWST	0	439	0	–	374	-15

NSF budget is available at www.nsf.gov/about/budget.

NSF is requesting $7.8 billion, an increase of 13% from FY10.  NSF is part of the President’s initiative to double federal investment in science and research.

The Math and Physical Science Directorate (MPS) requested $1433M, the largest amount of all seven directorates, but with the smallest percent increase of 6% compared to FY10.  The increases of the directorates range from 6% to 22%, with Engineering at 22%.

Within the MPS Directorate, Astronomy Division increased by 1.4%, the lowest of all the divisions.  The increases in the divisions range from 1.4% to 10.4%, with Chemistry at 10.4%.  In FY12 Astronomy has the lowest request at $249M.  The division requests range from $249M to $321M, with Materials Research at $321M.

The proposed cuts by the House decrease the NSF budget by $827.25M compared to the FY11 request.

(in millions of $)	FY10 Request	FY10 Enacted	FY11 Request	CR11 Cuts to FY11	FY12 Request	% to FY10
NSF	7045	6873	7424	6597	7767	13
MPS	1380	1352	1410	–	1433	6
Astronomy	251	246	252	–	249	1
Chemistry	239	234	248	–	258	10
Materials	309	303	319	–	321	6
Mathematics	246	241	254	–	260	8
Physics	296	290	298	–	301	4
Office of Multidisciplinary Activities	39	38	40	–	43	13

High energy astrophysics research at DOE is under the Office of Science, which work on ground and space based instruments for astrophysics.  Also, many of the high energy physics labs do research with astrophysics applications, including dark energy and dark matter.  The Office of Science requested $5416M for FY12, an increase of 9% from FY10.

However, DOE Science gets the largest decrease in funding in the proposed spending cuts in the House.  The House proposes to cut $1111M from Science compared to the FY11 request.

(in millions of $)	FY10 Request	FY10 Enacted	FY11 Request	CR11 Cuts to FY11	FY12 Request	% to FY10
DOE
Science	4941	4964	5121	4010	5416	9

The 112th Senate Committee on Appropriations has announced this session’s subcommittee assignments.

For the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and  Science the chairman remains Sen. Barbara Miksulski (MD) and the ranking Republican member is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX).  On the Defense Subcommitte, both Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI) and Sen. Thad Cochran (MS) remain as the chairman and the ranking Republican member, respectively.  With the retirement of Sen. Bryon Dorgan (ND), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA) becomes chairman of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee.  Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN) is the ranking Republican member.