Appropriations Process Underway

The House Appropriations Committee meets today to give its final approval to figures instrumental in determining the federal budget for the fiscal year beginning on October 1. The outlook for space station funding remains unclear -- although it could be worse.

The “college of cardinals,” as they are often referred to on Capitol Hill, met yesterday to carve up the $508.65 billion discretionary spending budget for fiscal year 1995. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wisconsin) and the thirteen appropriations subcommittee chairmen gave preliminary approval to figures which they formally vote on today. Indicative of the difficulties facing the committee is the fact that next year’s figure has declined from this year’s $510.07 billion.

The space station could have met an early death if the Appropriations Committee had given the VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee a less-than-generous amount of money for what are called “outlays.” Outlays are the amount of money which the government actually spends in a fiscal year, which includes bills coming due for commitments made in a previous year. VA, HUD subcommittee chairman Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) said he needed $73.3 billion in outlays in order to assure continued space station funding. He got just a bit less than $73 billion.

Obey said of the $73 billion: “These numbers don’t rule out the space station, and they don’t guarantee it.” An aide to Stokes said that they could fund the station with that figure, although left unsaid is where the subcommittee would cut the other $350 million in outlays for this year. Pressure is continuing to mount on the subcommittee to assure adequate funding for the VA and HUD.

Also bearing on the space station’s future is how much NASA receives for both budget authority (money for FY 1995 and beyond) and for outlays. As reported in FYI #63, House science committee chairman George Brown (D-California) was pressuring the appropriations subcommittee to give NASA a $14.3 billion budget for next year. He is backing away from that figure a bit. “It doesn’t have to be $14.3 billion,” Brown is now saying; “We’re within $300 million to $400 million of a satisfactory outcome to this thing.... There are wonders that can be done.” Brown said he would be satisfied with around a $14 billion budget for NASA.

This does not ensure that the space station is home free. Still a problem is securing enough votes to defeat any floor amendment to terminate the station. The Ranking Republican on the science committee, Bob Walker (Pennsylvania), citing concerns about the budget and Russian participation, said, “I’ve told the administration don’t expect me to deliver 75 percent of the Republicans. We’ll be lucky if we get 50 percent.”

In other areas of the budget, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee received a discretionary spending budget of $20.37 billion, down from $21.88 billion this year. Subcommittee chairman Tom Bevill (D-Alabama) warned that there would be “No new starts. That is the way it’s looking right now,” for water projects. There is no early indication of the outlook for the Department of Energy’s science programs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is funded by the Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations Subcommittee. Here the news is better. This subcommittee’s allocation rose from $22.95 billion this year to $26.06 billion for next year. NIST and anti-crime programs are in for sizeable increases for next year, prompting one subcommittee member to predict, “We are going to have to make substantial cuts in existing programs.”

The National Science Foundation is funded through the VA/HUD subcommittee. It is believed that the House appropriations subcommittee will markup its bill the week of June 6, followed by Senator Barbara Mikulski’s (D-Maryland) subcommittee during the week of July 16. It is being reemphasized that letters to Stokes and Mikulski from their colleagues will play an important role in determining how their subcommittees allocate department and agency budgets. These letters are, in turn, a reflection of the mail which representatives and senators receive in the next few crucial weeks from their constituents.

FYI #39 provides guidance on writing letters to Members of Congress.