Congress Prepares to Vote on Final FY 1997 NASA Budget

Last week, House and Senate conferees agreed upon the final version of H.R. 3666, the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill for FY 1997 (see FYI #137.) The legislation, which now needs to be voted on by both chambers, funds a number of agencies including NASA and the National Science Foundation. Below are details from the conference report (H. Rept. 104-812) language for NASA:

OVERALL NASA BUDGET:

President Clinton requested a total of $13,804.2 million for FY 1997. The conferees provided $13,704.2 million (equal to the Senate recommendation and greater than the House mark.) This is 99.3 percent of the request, or a reduction of $100 million.

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT:

The Clinton Administration requested $5,362.9 million for the Human Space Flight account for FY 1997. The conferees provided the full Administration request.

SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS AND TECHNOLOGY:

The Administration requested $5,862.1 million for the SA&T account for FY 1997. The conferees provided $5,762.1 million (equal to the Senate recommendation and greater than the House mark.) This is 98.3 percent of the request, or a reduction of $100 million.

The SA&T account includes space science and Mission to Planet Earth. The conferees funded the Office of Space Science at the requested level of $1,857.3 million. Other than a reduction of $5 million from the GLOBE program, the report states that “the conferees are directing no specific reduction to Mission to Planet Earth programs.” (The Administration’s request was $1.4 billion.)

In addition, a general reduction of $95 million was made to the SA&T request. Also within the SA&T account, the conferees provided the following increases to the requests for the programs below (and expect NASA to come up with offsetting reductions elsewhere):

$4 million for cardiac imaging; $4 million for the space radiation program; $2 million for high speed civil transport research; $5 million for the WindSat program; $12 million for radar satellite; $10 million for museum programs; $12 million for advanced space transportation; $10 million for the TIMED program; and $10 million for education programs.

MISSION SUPPORT:

The Administration requested $2,562.2 million for FY 1997. The conferees provided the full request.

Within the Mission Support account, “the conferees direct the NASA Administrator to submit a multi-year workforce restructuring plan on how NASA will achieve its stated fiscal year 2000 full-time equivalent (FTE) goal.... The plan shall minimize social and economic impacts, using reductions in force’ to the minimum extent practicable.”

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS:

Among the administrative provisions, the report states that “the conferees have also included an administrative provision providing transfer authority to NASA. It is the intent of the conferees that this authority will be used to transfer funds between the Science, Aeronautics and Technology account and the Human Space Flight account to the extent required for development/construction to maintain the schedule of the space station program. To ensure that there is no adverse effect on any NASA program, the conferees provide general transfer authority of up to $177,000,000 to be used at the discretion of the Administrator and subject to the case-by-case approval by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The conferees note that this authority is required because the current split between development/construction funding and science funding is not properly phased.”

The House is expected to begin consideration of the VA/HUD conference report today.