When Congress returns to work next week it will immediately confront
legislation left over from last year. Seven major appropriations
bills remain stuck in the Senate that would provide FY 2004 funding
for science-related programs such as the National Science Foundation,
NASA, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of
Education's Math-Science Partnership Program. The energy policy
bill, which contains strong authorization numbers for the DOE Office
of Science, is bogged down. Despite one-party control of the House,
Senate, and White House, finding the votes to pass these bills has
been difficult, and the prognosis is very unclear.
ENERGY POLICY BILL:
A small section of the massive energy policy bill, H.R. 6,
establishes multi year authorization levels for DOE's Office of
Science. The science authorization levels are largely
noncontroversial, as they are not binding on either the president or
the appropriators.
The larger energy policy bill is anything but noncontroversial. The
product of more than two and one-half years of work since President
Bush first announced an energy policy, the bill has had up-and-down
prospects because of highly controversial provisions dealing with
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; oil, ethanol, gas,
coal, and nuclear energy subsidies; and perhaps now most
significantly, a liability waiver for the producers of a fuel
additive. This additive, MTBE, while making gasoline combustion
cleaner, also pollutes groundwater if it escapes from underground
gasoline storage tanks. A filibuster by MTBE opponents has prevented
the Senate from voting on the bill. President Bush has asked House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to drop the provision; DeLay was not
persuaded. This legislation has already passed the House.
It is anticipated that Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) will make
moves to bring the bill back to the Senate floor in about a month,
with another attempt at passage before mid-March. After that date,
schedule pressures and the November elections will diminish the
chances of the bill's passage. No one knows how all of this will
turn out.
APPROPRIATIONS LEGISLATION:
Appropriations bills are always referred to "must-pass" bills
since
they provide the money needed to operate a department or agency.
Deciding how much to provide for a program, or whether to fund it at
all, has always made on-time passage of the thirteen appropriations
bills a difficult feat.
It was predicted that single-party control of both ends of
Pennsylvania Avenue would ensure passage of the FY 2004 bills around
the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. That has not
happened, with seven of the thirteen bills stuck in the Senate. In
an effort to move these bills off Capitol Hill more quickly, they
were all combined into an $820 billion "omnibus" bill that
the House
passed on December 8. A Senate move to pass this bill under
"unanimous consent" failed due to a lack of unanimity. Congress
then decided to continue funding for the affected agencies at last
year's level until the end of this month.
Frist's "plan A" will be finding 60 votes to end debate on
the
omnibus bill when the Senate reconvenes on January 20. Failing that,
"plan B" will be to move toward a bill that will continue
last year's
level of spending until the start of FY 2005 on October 1. In other
words, flat funding over two years for all of the departments and
agencies now caught up in the budget standoff. A very large share of
the anticipated budget increases are for programs funded by the
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill. Whether the
anger felt by Democratic senators at being locked out of the
negotiations process and their opposition to some of the tacked-on
provisions (such as those dealing with gun ownership documentation,
media ownership and food product labeling) in the omnibus outweighs
their desire to see the increases in social service program spending
is yet to be determined. At present, House Republican leaders are
refusing to open the omnibus bill to any changes.
If plan B is adopted, the budgetary losses to the affected S&T
programs would vary. The National Science Foundation's 5.0% agreed-
upon increase would disappear, as would the 3.2% increase for the
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The
48.5% increase for the Department of Education's Math and Science
Partnership would be eliminated. NASA's programs would fare both
positively and negatively, as some programs that would be slated for
reductions would be spared, while other program increases would be
lost. An 11.8% reduction for NIST would apparently be shelved.
Most Capitol Hill observers are predicting that this is going to be
a
very tough year. Cooperation between the two parties appears to be
at an all-time low. Budgetary pressures seem to be greater than in
recent memory. And this fall promises another bitter election as
both parties struggle for the control of the White House, Senate, and
House of Representatives.
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