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

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 Senate appropriations bill covering NSF and NASA is out. You can see the press release which summarizes the bill as well as Sen. Milkuski’s statement.

The Senate’s NSF number is $6.916 billion, a 6.6% increase over FY 2009, but lower than the administration’s 8.5% increase request and the House bill’s 6.9% increase. However, the NASA number matched the administration’s request of $18.686 billion, with none of the cuts to manned spaceflight present in the House bill.

The latest FYI discusses the bill, as well as pointing to the administration’s response to the House bill. For example OMB says in the statement, “The Administration is concerned with the reduction of $670 million from the President’s FY 2010 request for Exploration Systems. This large reduction would likely cause major negative impacts to any options that may emerge from the ongoing blue ribbon [Augustine committee] review of U.S. human space flight plans.”

The conference report for the Senate bill is also available. Either on the Thomas Web Site or the full PDF from the GPO site.

Here is the section of the report on the NSF, or the text of the NASA Science section.

It’s interesting to note where the Senate CJS appropriation deviates from the President’s request. Overall, NASA Science receives $4.517 billion, where as the request was $4.477 Billion. By division the Senate versus Request are as follows:

Division - Request - Senate
Earth Science - $1.405B - $1.405B
Planetary - $1.346B - $1.355
Astro - $1.121B - $1.169B
Helio - $605M - $646M

In Astrophysics, $50 million is added to Cosmic Origins in a new line for servicing opportunities for science missions. (The House had added a similar amount in their appropriation bill ) The R&A request of $61.1 million is reduced to $60 million.

Within Planetary Science, notable changes from the request include an increase to Lunar Quest, in the form of $21 million for the International Lunar Network, and a reduction to Mars Exploration – specifically the “Other Missions and Data Analysis” line is reduced from a $162.1 million request to $150 million.

Within Heliophysics, the largest change is a $50 million appropriation to Solar Probe Plus, from a request of $3.4 million. Heliophysics R&A’s requested budget of $35.4 million is reduced to $31 million in the Senate bill, equal to FY 2009.

Below is the explanatory text directly from the Senate committee report that touches on a lot of these changes:

Read more »

A variety of PDFs are reports are available covering the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science subcommittee bill. There is the full appropriations committee summary, the statement from Rep. Mollohan on the markup of the bill, a summary table of the appropriations.

Much of the detail, however, is in the committee report. The entire report can be viewed as a PDF from the Government Printing Office, complete with numerous tables. It’s also available on the Library of Congress site as a web page – here is the section on NASA science for example.

FYI does their usual, excellent job in discussing the NSF report language. The NSF mark is below the President’s request, a 6.9% increase over FY ’09 instead of a 8.5% increase.

The biggest notable event is that NASA space exploration receives a significant cut over the request – to quote Chairman Mollohan:

The recommendation, however, acknowledges that the Administration has established a blue ribbon panel, led by Dr. Norm Augustine, to review the current vision for human space flight. Funds are provided in the bill to continue investments in human space flight at the same level as provided in fiscal year 2009. Reductions from the budget request should not be viewed as a diminution of my support or that of the Subcommittee in NASA’s human space flight activities. Rather, the deferral is taken without prejudice; it is a pause, a time-out, to allow the President to establish his vision for human space exploration and to commit to realistic future funding levels to realize this vision.

The deferral amounts to a change of 212.3 million less than the request in Exploration. Also, a new budget line was created for the “Construction of Facilities” and some internal budget shifting occurs out of Cross-Agency support.

None of those budgetary changes effect NASA Science or the comparison of NASA science numbers to the request. Science sees a slight increase over the president’s request – $18.9 million more than requested. The details are from the above-linked Science section of the committee report, which you can see below. Read more »

A variety of scientific societies testified in person to the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations subcommittee last week. You can view their written testimony on the House Appropriations committee website. Additional printed testimony has been submitted by a variety of societies, including the AAS, and I anticipate will be available at some time in the near future.

As predicted, the Senate passed the Omnibus bill tonight. It now goes to the president for his signature.

In the committee report that accompanies the bill, is language concerning NASA conference travel. Specifically, this should remove the conference travel restrictions that were inserted into the NASA Authorization Act last year. While the report text is not law, agencies typically follow the congressional direction within the report. (This is also where most congressionally designated funding items are placed – also known as earmarks.)

To quote the report text:

… in no event shall the funds appropriated by this Act be subject to the limitation of section 1121(a) of P.L. 110-442 with respect to NASA expenditures for scientific and technical conferences or education-related conferences in which NASA science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) content is disseminated. “

We’ll see how this is implemented over the coming weeks, but it should relax restrictions on NASA civil servants attending scientific conferences.

The FY 2009 Omnibus appropriations bill passed the House quickly yesterday. The latest FYI describes the NASA spending.

Total NASA:

The FY 2008 enacted budget was $17,401.9 million.

The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $17,614.2 million.

The omnibus bill recommends $17,782.4 million. This is an increase of $380.5 million or 2.2 percent over FY 2008.

Science: The FY 2008 budget was $4706.2 million.

The Bush Administration’s FY 2009 request was $4,441.5 million.

The omnibus bill recommends $4,503.0 million. This is a decline of $203.2 million or 4.3 percent.

I have broken down the science numbers (numbers in thousands)

Planetary Science

• FY 2008 – $1,247,500
• Bush FY 2009 Request – $1,334,200
• Omnibus – $1,326,866

Astrophysics

• FY 2008 – $1,337,500
• Bush FY 2009 Request -$1,162,500
• Omnibus – $1,201,104

Heliophysics

• FY 2008 – $840,900
• Bush FY 2009 Request $577,300
• Omnibus – $606,363

Earth Science

• FY 2008 – $1,280,300
• Bush FY 2009 Request – $1,367,500
• Omnibus – $1,439,584

FYI has the details on the status of the FY 2009 appropriations. That is to say, there won’t be any. Other than Veterans Affairs, Defense, and Homeland security, the rest of the federal government is flat-funded until March of 2009. There was no plus-up for science as we and many other groups had hoped.

From FYI:

When it became clear that there would be a continuing funding resolution, attempts were made to convince congressional leaders to increase the funding levels for the National Science Foundation, the DOE Office of Science and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. …. These efforts were unsuccessful, as the continuing resolution increased budgets above “flat funding” for only the upcoming census, home energy and weatherization assistance, a key nutrition program, Pell grant tuition assistance, disaster relief, and a loan to auto makers to modernize their factories.

and

This “rate of operation” does not include the additional funding for NASA, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health that was provided in the supplemental appropriations bill enacted in June

That is to say, that while there was increased funding added to science in the war supplemental in June; this will not carry forward into FY 2009 via this continuing resolution.

It also means is a lot of work for the next Congress and next president as potentially both the FY 2008 and FY 2009 budgets will have to dealt with simultaneously early next year.

Update The AAAS has an excellent summary of the status of R&D funding for FY 2008

To keep the government operating, lawmakers approved a continuing resolution (CR) extending funding for all programs in unsigned 2009 appropriations bills at 2008 funding levels through March 6. The CR contains final FY 2009 appropriations for the Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA); all three receive substantial increases for their R&D portfolios, but other federal agencies in the remaining 9 of the 12 appropriations bills will be operating temporarily at or below 2008 funding levels for several months.

Earlier in the year, congressional appropriators endorsed large increases for the three physical sciences agencies in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), increases for human spacecraft development, increases for biomedical research in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and increases in other parts of the federal research and development (R&D) portfolio. But instead, most federal programs will continue to operate at or below 2008 funding levels for several months into the new fiscal year. In real terms, the federal investment in basic and applied research has already declined since 2004, and under the CR federal funding of research would decline again in 2009 for the fifth year in a row.