Recent Developments and Updates
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY APPROPRIATIONS BILL: Upon its return next week, the full House will consider H.R. 1905, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for FY 1996. Numerous amendments are expected. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) will reportedly offer an amendment to make significant funding cuts in the general science and energy supply R&D portions of this bill. There appears to be little support for his amendment.
FINAL BUDGET RESOLUTION: FYI #90 contained projections on future science and technology spending prepared by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As noted, these figures were based on the House version of the budget resolution. The AAAS has updated their projections to reflect additional language in the final budget resolution. The following changes were made in the figures shown in FYI #90. In each case, the reduction is less than in the House version (DOE, NIST, and two NSF projections remain unchanged.)
National Science Foundation:
Total NSF R&D declines by 18.1%
Research and Related Activities declines by 7.1%
Education and Human Resources declines by 17.6%
NASA:
Total NASA R&D declines by 35.9%
NASA SAT [science, aeronautics, and technology] Space R&D declines by 35.2%
NASA Human Space Flight declines by 35.1%
NASA Mission Support declines by 18.8%
RESCISSIONS BILL: The objections of two senators to H.R. 1944, a $16.3 billion rescissions bill to reduce current year spending, blocked this legislation’s final passage. With the time remaining in this fiscal year rapidly shrinking, the outlook for this bill is increasingly pessimistic. Failure to pass this bill will mean that the VA, HUD, Independent Agencies appropriations subcommittees will have to make large reductions in the amount of money they have available for FY 1996 funding for agencies under their jurisdiction, such as NSF and NASA.
YERGIN TASK FORCE REPORT: This report, summarized in FYI #87, is available on the DOE WWW Homepage at the following address: http://apollo.osti.gov/html/doe/whatsnew/yergin/yergin.html
FORMER NSF DIRECTOR WALTER MASSEY has been appointed president of Morehouse College in Atlanta.
