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Category: Energy R&D

House Passes CJS

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Today, the House of Representatives passed HR 2578, the FY16  Commerce, Justice, Science bill by a vote of 242–183. Twelve Democrats voted for and ten Republicans voted against the $51.4 billion measure. The legislation had a host of amendments ranging from Cuba, bullets, immigration, to marijuana.

Unfortunately, no amendments were offered on some of the most concerning provisions to the research community, mainly the cuts to NSF’s Geosciences (GEO) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates. Overall, the legislation appropriates $7.3 billion for NSF, which is $50 million or a 0.7 percent increase over FY15. The bill appropriates $5.9 billion for the Research and Related Activities account which is an increase of $50 million, or 0.8 percent above the FY15 level. Both the Education and Human Resources ($866 million) and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction ($200 million) Directorates are flat funded.

While avoiding specific funding levels by directorate, the House Committee Report language directs NSF to allocate no less than 70% of research and related activity funding to Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering.  Moreover. Further, the language also directs NSF to allocate no less than FY15 levels for the: Office of International Science and Engineering; Integrative Activities; and U.S. Arctic Commission. The results of this direction would significant cut to the two directorates not explicitly named: GEO and SBE.  This language would force NSF to cut over $250 million.  The combined current budget for these two directorates is $1,576.6 million; the FY 2016 budget in the House bill is $256.7 million or 16.3 percent less. In FY15, the GEO budget  $1.3 billion and the SBE budget $272 million.

These cuts reflects similar assaults on these directorates from the House’s recently passed America COMPETES legislation.

In the May 14th Science Insider article, House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Culberson (R-TX) indicated the rationale behind such a cut was that geosciences is not a “pure science.” Clearly there is strong communication between the two committees.

Unfortunately, there are additional report language concerns. the report language also directs the NSF to develop guidelines and present a plan to the committee within 180 days of enactment to ensure that research conducted by NSF grantees is replicable. At this time, the community does not fully know the implications, if any, such language could have on the research conducted at U.S. universities.

Amendments of note:

  • The House narrowly defeated an amendment (213 to 214) from Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) that would have increased funding for Industrial Technology Servicese (ITS). ITS consists of 3 programs, including the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The amendment would have increased funding for ITS by $11 million and reduced funding for buildings and facilities of the federal prison system by $31M.
  • An amendment from Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), which would have reduced funding for the science mission directorate by $103M, and directed $67M to the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and exploration. Rep. Babin decided not to offer the amendment.
  • An amendment offered by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)  that would reduce funds in the bill by 1 percent across-the-board excepting the FBI and specified accounts for the Department of Justice. The Blackburn amendment failed by a vote of 168-257.
  • An amendment offered by Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) that would prohibit the use of funds to fund any Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program within NSF or NASA. The Foster-Garrett amendment failed by a vote of 195-232.

Here is a list of all the amendments that passed.

In addition, the White House has issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing the passage of the House legislation.

Attention on FY16 CJS now turns to the Senate.

House to Consider CJS

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The House Rules will meet today to approve a rule for consideration of the FY2016 CJS Appropriations bill (H.R. 2578). The House will begin consideration of the bill beginning tomorrow at noon and possibly continuing through Thursday.

As has been previously mentioned, the cuts to the measure and the report language accompanying the legislation have raised some concerns. The White House has also expressed concerns on the bill.

Here is a AAAS article on the winners and losers of the House bill.

Senate Releases “COMPETES” Bill

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On Wednesday afternoon, as the House was working on passing its version of America COMPETES, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Corey Gardner (R-CO), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) today introduced the energy portion of America COMPETES. To give some perspective of the heavy hitters sponsoring this legislation, Senator Alexander is the Chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has jurisdiction over several broader sections of COMPETES, including NSF. Alexander was an active participant in the passage of the original Competes Act that was enacted in 2007 (PL 110-69).

The Senate measure is expected to be taken up by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR) this summer as part of a broad energy package that the Chairwoman of that Committee, Lisa Murkowski, hopes to advance. The Ranking Member of the Committee, Maria Cantwell, is also a cosponsor of the legislation. Further, Senator Alexander chairs the Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee and Senator Feinstein is the ranking Democrat on the panel.

Highlights of the bill include:

  • a five-year authorization for both the Office of Science and ARPA-E
  • funding for the Office of Science would increase about 4 percent annually, for a total of increase of about 22 percent over five years
  • funding for ARPA-E would also increase about 4 percent each year, for a total of increase of about 22 percent over five years

More information about this bill is here. 

COMPETES Passes the House

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After an interesting debate, the House narrowly passed HR 1806 – the America COMPETES Reauthorization of 2016 but a vote of 217-205. The bill was largely along party line vote with all Democrats and 23 Republicans voting against the measure. Earlier this week, the White House issued a veto threat.

As previously discussed, the bill authorizes science programs across the federal government, boosts funding for the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department’s Science office while cutting funds for climate and renewable energy research. It also bars DOE research from being used in any federal regulations. Only six of the twelve amendments stood for floor votes when debate ended and most of the Democratic measures failed. Most amendments passed via voice vote, including a Democratic amendment to reauthorize DOE’s Energy Innovation Hubs. Later, however, efforts to scrap language requiring NSF grants to include a “national interest” justification, and Science Committee ranking member Eddie Bernice Johnson’s attempt to rewrite the bill entirely, failed.

A Democratic amendment that sought to continue allowing DOE to produce drop-in biofuels with the Pentagon failed more narrowly than the overall bill passed: 208-215.

Other amendments that passed included:

  • A measure from Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) that would add $5 million for manufacturing partnerships by decreasing funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by the same amount
  • An amendment from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) creating workshops to instruct teachers in robotics and other STEM-related learning.
  • An amendment by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) that would allow House and Senate leaders to appoint members to several science advisory boards in the bill.

Earlier in the day, the House also passed HR 880 – the American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2015, which would permanently extend the R&D tax credit.

Both measures now move to the Senate.

FY16 House DOD and Senate E&W Appropriations Bills Released

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House and Senate appropriators are in full swing working on the FY16 appropriations measures.

House Appropriators released of a FY16 Defense appropriations measure that totals $578.6 billion. The bill, which the Subcommittee on Defense will mark up Wednesday, includes $88.4 billion for so-called Overseas Contingency Operations account.

In total, the bill provides $578.6 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $24.4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level and $800 million above the President’s request. This includes $88.4 billion in Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) funding for war efforts and related costs, which is within the level assumed in the House and Senate budget conference agreement.

The bill contains $67.9 billion – $66.2 billion in base funding and $1.7 billion in GWOT funding – for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies. This is $4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 level, and will help to advance the safety and success of current and future military operations and prepare our nation to meet a broad range of future security threats.

Specifically, this funding will support research and development of: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; the GPS III operational control and space segments; the new Air Force bomber program; a next-generation JSTARS aircraft; the RQ-4 Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; the Navy’s Future Unmanned Carrier-based Strike System, the Ohio-class submarine replacement; Stryker lethality; the Israeli Cooperative Programs; and other important research and development activities.

A total of $88.4 billion in war-related OCO funds is $37.4 billion more than Obama requested for this same bill and represents an admitted ploy to appease Republican hawks while keeping within the BCA caps. This distribution seems in line with an effort to try to target the surplus OCO funds toward training and equipment costs that can at least be linked to the actual war operations overseas. Such maneuvers were a strong point of contention during the NDAA consideration and warranted a veto threat.

 

Senate Appropriators in the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $35.4 billion FY 2016 spending bill that sets annual funding levels for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies.

The bill would raise funding some $1.2 billion over current levels, effectively matching the increase approved in the version approved by the House Appropriations Committee on April 22. Unlike the House appropriations bill, however, the Senate subcommittee draft puts off debate on the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada that has been blocked for years by Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.