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Category: Legislation

Senate Approps Subcommittee Passes CJS

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The Senate Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee passed the Senate’s FY16 CJS appropriations bill this morning. The $51.1  billion draft advanced by unanimous consent and would provide $7.3 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), $5.4 billion for National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), $18.3 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and $893 million for National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Unlike the House, the Senate bill did not include directorate level allocations of funds. Historically, Congress has allocated a broad amount to NSF overall, allowing the agency the discretion to allocate funding by directorate as it sees fit. The Senate bill would fund NSF at $7.34 billion, which is equal to the FY15 enacted level.  This funding includes $5.93 billion for NSF’s research and research facilities to support today’s scientists, engineers and technicians, and $866 million for NSF’s education and training programs to build tomorrow’s innovation workforce.

NOAA is funded at $5.4 billion, which includes a $23 million increase above the FY2015 enacted level for the National Weather Service.  The bill provides full funding for NOAA’s flagship weather satellites, which are critical for accurate weather warnings to protect lives and property.  Funding for NOAA also targets new areas of investment for fisheries management, including the testing and implementation of new technologies to expand opportunities for American commercial and recreational fishermen. The bill provides $2.3 million to plan for a new Ocean Survey Vessel, but does not include the requested $147 million to fund construction of the vessel.

The bill funds NASA at $18.3 billion, a $279 million increase over FY2015, to support the human and robotic exploration of space, fund science missions that enhance the understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe, and support fundamental aeronautics research. This includes $5.3 billion for Science, which is $50 million above the FY2015 enacted level and $6.4 million above the request. This funding encompasses missions from the Earth, to the Moon, throughout the Solar system, and the far reaches of the universe.

The bill provides $893 million for NIST, $29 million above the FY2015 enacted level.  The funding will strengthen the U.S. cybersecurity posture through cutting-edge research and development, expand opportunities in the areas of advanced manufacturing, and continue promotion of the highest quality standards to maintain fairness in the marketplace.

Additional information on the bill can be found here. Federal Relations will continue to monitor and post more details when they are available.

 

Defense Money Starts Moving

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The Senate Defense Approps Subcommittee will mark up its spending bill tomorrow, and the full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take it up the measure on Thursday.

Simultaneously, the Senate will start the week with debate on dozens of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which will be on the floor all week — the Senate is expected to wrap up its work on cybersecurity legislation.  The effort, might all be for naught if Senate Democrats decide to filibuster the bill and have a similar fight to what happened on the House side, when the House considered their version of the NDAA.

On the House side, the Defense Appropriations bill will be on the floor beginning Wednesday. The House passed its version of the authorization bill in mid-May.

 

Senate Judiciary Approves PATENT Act, House Begins to Move on Innovation Act

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Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the PATENT Act by a vote of 16 to 4, with only Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Coons (D-DE), David Vitter (R-LA), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) voting against it.

During consideration of the bill, the Committee approved an amendment offered by John Cornyn (R-TX) that alters the definition of micro-entity status in a way that is potentially helpful to universities, technology transfer organizations, and research foundations. The panel also approved the manager’s amendment, which among other changes, clarifies that the burden is on the prevailing party to demonstrate that it is entitled to fee shifting, a provision which universities support.

The bill now waits for time by the Full Senate.

The House is now seeing motion on HR 9, the Innovation Act. The measure has been somewhat difficult to move due to substantial opposition by stakeholders, including higher education, which was not voiced last Congress when the measure passed overwhelmingly. The House is expected to potentially mark up the bill, with changes, late next week.

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.