Congressional Committees with Jurisdiction over R&D, Education
Members of Congress make numerous decisions impacting the funding and performance of federal R&D. Yet many observe that they get little input from their constituents about science policy or budgets. In communicating with your Members, it is valuable to know what committees play a role in setting science priorities, policy, and budgets. It is in committee, and not on the floor, where legislation is crafted.
Those Members with probably the biggest impact on science programs are the appropriators -- the Members who hold the purse strings. There are 13 appropriations subcommittees in each chamber of Congress. Within those subcommittees, R&D agencies often have to compete for funding with other priorities, such as veterans' medical care or the Army Corps of Engineers. The drafting of appropriations bills begins in the spring, after the President has submitted his budget request, and after Congress has divvied up funding allocations - called 602(b) allocations - to each of the subcommittees. The appropriations bills must work their way through each chamber, from subcommittee to the full appropriations committee to the floor, then repeat the process on the other side. The House and Senate then hold a conference to reconcile their versions of a bill, hold a final vote in each chamber, and then send it to the President for signing. Ideally, this process is completed before the new fiscal year begins on October 1.
Authorization bills determine science policy and guide funding. Authorizing committees hold oversight hearings to review, revise and extend existing programs and approve new ones. The bills that come out of an authorizing committee provide funding caps or guidelines for federal programs. While in theory, appropriators are supposed to be guided by authorizing legislation when determining federal funding, in reality they do not necessarily heed the authorizers, and many authorization bills never make it out of committee and into law. However, authorization bills, if they are timely, can often influence funding for a project or agency.
There are several major appropriations and authorization (sub)committees in each chamber that have jurisdiction over most federal programs tracked by FYI. In both the House and the Senate, the following appropriations subcommittees provide funding for these science and technology (among other) programs:
Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Subcommittees: NIST Energy & Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees: DOE civilian R&D programs Armed Services Appropriations Subcommittees: DOD R&D (6.1, 6.2, and 6.3) VA/HUD/Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittees: NSF, NASA Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittees Dept. of Education
In the Senate, the primary authorizing subcommittee for most civilian R&D programs is the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. In the House, the House Science Committee has jurisdiction over most civilian R&D. Military R&D is under the jurisdiction of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military R&D.
To know what Members sit on committees of interest to you, or to determine if your representative or senators are on a certain committee, FYI has posted the rosters for the above-mentioned committees and subcommittees on our Web site.
The rosters can be found in the FYI archives, numbered sequentially as FYIs #51-67: see /fyi/1999/
Alternatively, you can look up committee rosters based on a committee's jurisdiction over a particular agency or department by going to "Communicating with Congress" under Science Policy on our Web site and looking at Key Chairmen and their Committees - By Jurisdiction: see http://www.aip.org/gov/commcong.html
If you do not have access to our Web site, please contact us and we will mail or fax you the rosters needed.
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Audrey T. Leath
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3094
/fyi/
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