Congress Goes on Vacation; Key Science Legislation Awaits Final Action

Today is the first day of a four-week vacation for the House and Senate. They will return to work on September 7 with only four weeks to complete action on a number of key science funding bills. Fiscal year 1994 begins on October 1. The status of this legislation is as follows:

Department of Energy:

A major battle will be over funding for the SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER in H.R. 2445, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill. Senate supporters of the collider will need a big win on the Senate floor to overcome the 280-150 decision by the House of Representatives to kill the project. SSC opponents and supporters claim various Senate vote projections. One count indicates that the collider would win Senate approval by a vote of 53-47, down considerably from last year’s vote of 62-32. If the Senate agrees with the House in killing SSC funding, it will all over. Even if collider funding is approved by the Senate, considerable efforts will have to be made to include SSC funding in the final bill. Although probably all of the conferees on the conference committee fashioning the final language for H.R. 2445 will be SSC supporters, and thus can be expected to include funding in the final bill, House opponents are readying floor strategies to keep collider funding out of the bill. Expect two key votes in September: on the Senate floor, and if SSC funding is included in the final bill, on the House floor. $640 million has been requested.

In other areas of H.R. 2445, all non-controversial, as passed by the House: HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS funding was provided at the requested level. NUCLEAR PHYSICS funding is at the request, plus an additional $14 million to continue operations at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. FUSION funding was provided at the requested level. BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES funding was reduced in the House bill, with a $17 million cut in new start funding for the Advanced Neutron Source.

National Science Foundation:

Also on the “must-do” list for Congress upon its return is Senate consideration and final House and Senate passage of H.R. 2491, the VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations bill. Both NSF and NASA are independent agencies.

The House-passed bill includes an 11% increase for NSF; a 16% increase was requested. The administration requested an 18% increase for RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES; the House cut this to 10%. Funding for EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES was increased 3% over the requested level to 17%.

The Senate’s bill has not yet been written. Senate hearings on H.R. 2491 have been completed, and it is expected that the Senate VA/HUD appropriations subcommittee will send its bill to the floor in early September. One item to watch is how Senator Mikulski’s (D-Maryland) subcommittee funds the recently passed National Service Act. Yesterday, agreement was reached on an authorization bill for this program. Mikulski’s bill will include National Service funding, something which the House-passed bill did not. How this will impact final FY 1994 NSF funding in this very tight bill is unknown. Also unknown, and thus far little discussed: if Midwest flooding will alter funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also provided for in H.R. 2491. These funding pressures also apply to the NASA portion of the bill, discussed below.

One final note: last year Senator Mikulski’s subcommittee was forthright in pressing the NSF to support strategic research ("...the Committee believes that the new world order requires the Foundation to take a more activist role in transferring the results of basic research from the academic community into the market place."-- August 1992.) It bears watching to see to what degree the subcommittee discusses this matter in its all-important report accompanying H.R. 2491.

NASA:

Another bruising battle is in the offing when the full Senate considers H.R. 2491. An amendment to kill SPACE STATION funding is a certainty; less certain is if station opponents will be able to improve upon last year’s 63-34 vote to fund the station. The House passed bill contains $2.1 billion, the administration’s target, in space station funding. Senator Mikulski’s bill should also provide full funding for the station.

In the event that the Senate votes to kill the station, the final bill will have to be reconciled with the House version providing station funding -- a situation somewhat akin, only reversed, to possibly that of the SSC.

SPACE SCIENCE funding levels in the House-passed version of H.R. 2491 varied from the administration’s request -- some higher, some lower. Physics and astronomy and planetary MO&DA was increased by $22.5 million. Mission to Planet Earth funding was cut by $15 million. See FYI #84 for further information.

NIST:

H.R. 2519, the Commerce, Justice, State, Judiciary Appropriations bill, contains funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The administration requested $535.2 million; the House passed version contains $433.7 million. The Senate has passed its version of this bill, containing the full request. A final conference bill now needs to be hammered out. There is some promise that the House will agree to a higher funding level.

OTHER MATTERS:

The Senate will be voting on the nominations of NEAL LANE as the director of the National Science Foundation, and MARTHA KREBS as the director of DOE’s Office of Energy Research...also to be considered are the authorization bills for NSF and NASA...attempts to limit EARMARKING will also be made.