Critical Time for Next Year’s NSF and NASA Budgets

Within the next few days a handful of representatives and senators will determine next year’s budgets for the National Science Foundation and NASA. In a race against a contingent stop-gap funding bill, members of the House and Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittees soon will meet to hammer out the final version of H.R. 3666, the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill for FY 1997. This final version, called the conference report, will go back to the full House and Senate for one last vote, before being sent to the President.

While not all conferees have been officially named, they will in all likelihood be most if not all of the following Members:

FOR THE HOUSE (District offices provided for geographical perspective):

Jerry Lewis (R-CA/40th District) (chairman of subcommittee) Redlands Louis Stokes (D-OH/11th District) (ranking member) Shaker Heights Tom DeLay (R-TX/22nd) Stafford Barbara Vucanovich (R-NV/2nd) Reno, Las Vegas James Walsh (R-NY/25th) Syracuse, Auburn, Cortland David Hobson (R-OH/7th) Springfield, Lancaster Joe Knollenberg (R-MI/11th) Farmington Hills, Livonia Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ/11th) Morristown, Dover, West Caldwell Mark Neumann (R-WI/1st) Janesville, Beloit, Elkhorn, Kenosha, Racine Alan Mollohan (D-WV/1st) Clarksburg, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Wheeling Jim Chapman (D-TX/1st) Sulphur Springs, Marshall, New Boston Marcy Kaptur (D-OH/9th) Toledo Robert Livingston (R-LA/1st) (chairman of full committee) Metairie, Hammond, Slidell David Obey (D-WI/7th) (ranking minority member of full committee) Wausau

FOR THE SENATE:

Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-MO) (chairman of the subcommittee) Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Conrad Burns (R-MT) Ted Stevens (R-AK) Richard Shelby (R-AL) Robert Bennett (R-UT) Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) Patrick Leahy (D-VT) J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) J. Robert Kerrey (D-NE) Mark Hatfield (R-OR) (chairman of full committee) Robert Byrd (D-WV) (ranking minority member of full committee)

The Senate completed action on H.R. 3666 last night. The Senate and House versions of this bill differ in funding levels for NSF and NASA. The above Members of the conference committee will meet within just the next few days to resolve the differences in these bills. Subcommittee staff is already at work on this legislation.

There are significant differences that must be resolved in the NSF and NASA portions of these bills. They are:

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION:

TOTAL BUDGET: The Senate bill provides more: $3,275 million compared to $3,253 million in the House bill. RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES: The Senate bill provides more: $2,432 million compared to $2,431 million. EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES: The Senate bill provides more: $624 million compared to $612 million. MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT: No difference SALARIES AND EXPENSES: The Senate bill provides more: $134 million compared to $125 million. Note that the House subcommittee’s original bill provided $134 million, which was later cut on the House floor.

NASA:

TOTAL BUDGET: The Senate bill provides more: $13.7 billion compared to $13.6 billion in the House bill. SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS AND TECHNOLOGY: The Senate bill, as it came to the floor, provided more: $5.8 billion compared to $5.7 billion. The full Senate does not appear to have changed this amount through floor amendments. Within this SA&T account is MISSION TO PLANET EARTH: The Senate bill provides more: $1.4 billion compared to $1.2 billion in the House bill. HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT: No difference; an amendment to terminate the space station program was rejected by the Senate (37 yes - 60 no.)

The telephone number of the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.