Congress Acts on Final NSF FY 1995 Funding Bill: Education and Human Resources

Earlier this week the House passed the final bill, or conference report (House Report 103-715), for H.R. 4624, the FY 1995 VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill. The Senate will act shortly.

The bill provides NSF with $606.0 million for the Education and Human Resources Directorate, a 6.0 % increase over the current year (FY 1994) budget of $569.6 million. NSF requested $586.0 million.

The conference report makes $5.0 million in general reductions in the Education and Human Resources budget “to be taken at the discretion of the Director.” Budgets for the following activities were increased over the original request:

$5.0 million for EPSCoR;
$5.8 million “for the advanced technology education and outreach community college grants;
$1.0 million for the Model Institution of Excellence Program;
$1.0 million for the rural systematic initiative;
$4.0 million for the graduate traineeship program;
$3.0 million for the urban systemic initiative;
$1.0 million for informal science education;
$1.0 million “to implement a pilot project to establish an interactive telecommunications system among tribally controlled community colleges;"
$2.0 million to establish a competitive, merit-based program to support the efforts of states to develop electronic libraries;"
$750,000 for the Partnerships for Minority Student Achievement;
$500,000 for summer science camps.

The conference report states: “The committee of conference recognizes that NSF has actively supported education activities to encourage participation of women and minorities who are underrepresented in science, engineering and mathematics and persons with disabilities. NSF is encouraged to continue emphasizing this area. Further, the conferees urge NSF to coordinate its programs with related programs in other federal agencies to ensure that federal resources achieve the maximum beneficial effect. The conferees wish to encourage the Foundation to coordinate the several successful programs administered by the Department of Education, which are collectively known as the TRIO programs.”

The report continues, “Consistent with the administration’s position to invest in science and technology as part of its agenda to build a prosperous economy, the conferees direct each agency under its jurisdiction to establish an interagency economic impact and diversity council to provide guidance and advice with respect to issues in the areas of science and technology as they impact racial and ethnic minorities, women and persons with disabilities who are underrepresented in these fields. The Office of Science and Technology Policy is to monitor and report back to the committees on the creation of these councils by October 31, 1994.”