Skip to content
News and updates

News and updates

CJS Appropriations Bill Clears House Committee

Posted on

The House Appropriations Committee approved this afternoon by a vote of 32 to 19 the FY2019 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill.  As noted previously, the bill funds a number of agencies of interest to the university, including, but not limited to, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and NOAA.  During the committee markup, an amendment was offered, and then withdrawn, by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) that would have restored $60 million to the Competitive Research program for Climate Research at NOAA.

The bill now heads to the House floor for consideration by the entire chamber.

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Begin to Move

Posted on

With the FY2019 set to start October 1, the appropriations bills for the year have begun to move through Congress, with the House Appropriations Committee taking up a number of bills the past several days.

The subcommittee that oversees the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, which funds various agencies and programs of interest to the university– such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and NOAA– cleared its bill last week and the measure is slated for full Appropriations Committee consideration tomorrow.

The subcommittee-approved version of the bill would fund NSF at $8.17 billion, an increase of approximately $400 million.  Within the agency, the Research and Related Activities account would receive $6.65 billion, an increase of $317 million above the current level.  The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account would be funded at $268 million under this version of the legislation, of which $123.8 million would be dedicated to the construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Under the bill, the Space Grant Program at NASA would be level funded at $40 million in FY2019.

Within NOAA, the Integrated Ocean Observing System would see a slight increase to $37.5 million.  The bill would appropriate $68.5 million to the Sea Grant Program while separately funding the Marine Aquaculture program at $11.5 million.

The legislation also funds the various NOAA Cooperative Institutes (CIs).  Climate research CIs would be funded at $73.0 million in FY2019, compared to $60 million this year.  However, the bill would also eliminate the Competitive Research, Sustained Observation, and Regional Information Program in the broader Climate Research account at NOAA.

Additional details about the bill are available here.

The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its funding bill last night, sending it to the full committee for its consideration in the near future.  While most of the details about the bill are not yet available, it would fund the Earthquake Early Warning system at $21 million in FY2019.  Office of Federal Relations will provide additional details about this and other bills as they become available.

Across the Capitol, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) announced that his committee will move on its bills starting next week.

House Appropriations Committee Passes FY 2019 Energy & Water

Posted on

The House Appropriations Committee approved its $44.7 billion FY 2019 Energy &Water spending bill, 29-20, after Republican lawmakers beat back efforts by Democrats to eliminate policy riders. Generally, bill would provide $6.6 billion for the DOE Office of Science, a 5% increase above FY 2018. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) would receive $325 million, an 8% cut below FY 2018, and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would receive $2.1 billion, a 9 percent cut from the FY 2018 enacted levels.

The Administration proposed a nearly 66-percent cut in renewable energy and energy efficiency research along with the elimination of ARPA-E.

The bill now heads to the House floor where it is poised for consideration in the coming weeks as one of the first few appropriations bills in the FY 2019 spending cycle.

The committee report can be found here.

Senate Appropriations Sets Ambitious Schedule

Posted on

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released a calendar that puts the spending panel on track to finish all the fiscal 2019 bills by June 29. Both Shelby and Leahy  are aiming to bring each bill to the floor — for the first time in years — by promising amendment votes to allow for a robust floor debate.

The schedule is as follows:

Week of May 21-25: Energy-Water and Agriculture-FDA

Week of June 4-8: Transportation-HUD and Military Construction-VA

Week of June 11-15: Interior-Environment, Commerce-Justice-Science and Legislative Branch

Week of June 18-22: State-Foreign Operations, Homeland Security and Financial Services.

Week of June 25-29: Defense and Labor-HHS-Education

The House Appropriations Committee has already begun consideration and mark up of the House version of these measures.

White House Releases “Rescission” Package

Posted on

As expected, the White House Office of Management and Budget released its package of proposed rescissions earlier today.  The list of programs targeted for cuts is available  here.  The package includes 38 items, totaling approximately $15 billion in cuts.

The biggest portion of the package, roughly $7 billion, would come from the Children Health Insurance Program and more than $4 billion would come come from the Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.