Good News/Bad News: House Starts Work on Science Appropriations Bills

Firm numbers will be put down on paper tomorrow when the full House Appropriations Committee votes on the amount of money which will be available for various appropriations bills. The news is mixed for the physics community.

An essential part of the annual appropriations process is the decision on how to distribute discretionary program dollars. Discretionary program spending is controlled by the thirteen appropriations bills, and includes budgets for NSF, NASA, DOE, and NIST. $495 billion, essentially the same amount of money as was available for the current year, is being broadly divided up for FY 1997 defense, domestic, and foreign aid programs.

In dividing up this money, House Republicans seem to have two objectives. One, they want to protect defense spending, which would increase 1.9%, or $4.4 billion, over this year. Two, the general thinking is that a repeat of last year’s stand-off over spending would not be productive this year. Thus, three appropriations subcommittees with programs important to the administration have notable (for these days) increases in their allotments, or what is called their 602b allocations.

The 602b allocation for the House VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee increases 3.1% or $1.9 billion over FY 1996. This is good news for NSF and NASA, which both receive funding through this bill. The allocation for Commerce, Justice, and State is up 2.2%, or $600 million, through which NIST is funded. Allowances for inflation are not included in these increases.

These figures do not necessarily translate into budget increases for these agencies. Much of the VA, HUD increase will pay for VA health care and HUD housing. Many House Republicans will continue to be philosophically opposed to NIST’s Advanced Technology Program. Nevertheless, these appropriations subcommittees have some much-needed leeway as they divide up their money. Financing these increases under a flat budget meant that cuts had to be made elsewhere, and one of those areas taking a major hit is the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee’s allocation. This allocation, which finances DOE’s science programs, is down 5.4%, or $1 billion, from this year. The reduction is likely to squeeze many of DOE’s physics programs. It is expected that the Senate will oppose this cut.

All of this starts to come together next week. On Wednesday, the VA, HUD subcommittee is scheduled to vote on, or mark up, its bill. Mark-ups for the energy and commerce bills have not yet been scheduled. House appropriators hope to complete work on most of the 13 appropriations bill by July 4. Whether Senate appropriators will agree with the House’s actions is yet to be seen.