Mixed Bag: Outlook on Commerce Department Funding
It came as no surprise when the full House Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday to cut FY 1996 funding for the Department of Commerce. As expected, this bill, which will next be considered by the full House, eliminates funding for the Advanced Technology Program. The bill does contain money for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program and, as expected, NIST’s core programs, which include intramural laboratory research in physics and material sciences. In addition to this appropriations bill is separate legislation which would abolish the Department of Commerce. This legislation will be the subject of three days of hearings in House and Senate committees next week.
The House Appropriations Committee bill, H.R. 2076, would reduce NIST’s appropriation for its core programs (Scientific and Technical Research and Services) by $47.7 million from the FY 1996 request (or $1.5 million below current funding.) The committee report states: “The amounts provided for this account reflect the Committee’s commitment to funding basic research programs that benefit the nation’s industries.” The committee report recommends a total of $263.0 million for this activity, and shows a breakdown of this funding as providing $27.4 million for physics (the request for NIST’s intramural laboratory physics research was $28.1 million.) The committee provides $53.4 million for material sciences and engineering intramural laboratory research; the request was for $54.3 million. Note that other NIST intramural activities can include work in physics and material sciences.
The committee provides no money for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). As an explanation, the committee report states this is “because of the likelihood that no authorization [law] will be provided for the program.” At a June 28 mark up of NIST authorizing legislation, the House Science Committee rebuffed efforts by committee Democrats to authorize ATP and other technology programs (see FYIs #82 and 89.) Yet, the appropriations committee did provide $81.1 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP) ($146.6 million was requested; current year funding is $90.6 million) which was not authorized by the Science Committee. None of the science or technology authorization bills considered by the new Congress have been signed into law by President Clinton. It is expected that this appropriations bill will go to the House floor next week -- perhaps Wednesday or Thursday. A big unknown is what amendments may be offered on the floor, with some expectation that there may be a move to dismantle the department through this appropriations bill. The House leadership is believed to be generally opposed to this approach. On the whole, supporters of the Commerce Department are cautiously optimistic about H.R. 2076 in the House, but much less certain about the situation in the Senate.
On another front, next Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, hearings are scheduled in both the House and Senate on H.R. 1756 and S. 929, which are similar bills to abolish the Department of Commerce. The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Dick Chrysler (R-MI), has 66 cosponsors. The Senate bill, sponsored by Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) has 5 cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS).
There is a growing awareness about the effect which these bills would have not only on programs like ATP, but also on NIST’s core programs. Section 206 of the Senate bill calls for NIST’s laboratories to be sold “to a private sector entity intending to perform substantially the same functions....” Other functions would be transferred to the National Science Foundation. The Office of Technology Policy, ATP and the MEP would be terminated. NOAA programs would be transferred or terminated.
How much support there is in either chamber for these bills is unknown. The budget resolution passed by each chamber calls for the elimination of Commerce. The Senate bill has, in addition to Abraham and Dole, four other co-sponsors: Brown (R-CO), Faircloth (R-NC), Gramm (R-TX), and Nickles (R-OK). The House bill has, besides Chrysler, 66 cosponsors, all but one a Republican. They include Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-OH), Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Livingston (R-LA), Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-NY), and VA/HUD appropriations subcommittee chairman Ron Packard (R-CA). House Science Committee Chairman Bob Walker (R-PA), a frequent critic of many Commerce technology programs, is not a cosponsor.
The battle over the continuation of the programs of the Department of Commerce, and indeed the department itself, will likely be fought out on the House and Senate floors. The degree of support which constituents express for these programs will be instrumental in the decisions which Members make about these bills. H.R. 2076, the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Appropriations Bill for FY 1996, will be considered by the full House next week.
