Science Committee Passes Big Bill

At a partisan and often ill-natured meeting on April 24, the House Science Committee rushed to complete work on an FY 1997 authorization bill for many of the programs under its jurisdiction. It often was not a pretty sight as the committee’s Republicans and Democrats voted on how $19.7 billion should be spent in the coming year.

Chairman Robert Walker (R-PA) started the hearing by saying “This committee is serious about its responsibility,” and had made the “tough choices.” The committee’s Democratic members were quick to point out that they had no input in the drafting process, prompting Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to exclaim, “we’re hearing a lot of squealing from the animals.”

Ranking Minority Member George Brown (D-CA) offered his own version of the bill, which was, to no one’s surprise, rejected on a straight 21-27 party-line vote.

The committee then considered the National Science Foundation portion of the bill. Members would authorize (i.e., give permission to spend, but not actually provide) $3,250 million for NSF in FY 1997. The administration requested $3,325 million; current year funding is $3,220 million. The committee would reauthorize the Academic Research Infrastructure program for $100 million, which NSF wants to terminate. The Education authorization would provide $600 million; current spending is $599 million, $619 million was sought. Research and Related Activities spending would be authorized at $2,340 million; current spending is $2,314 million, $2,472 million was requested.

(To compare the NSF request to the committee’s bill - “apples-to-apples” - it seems appropriate to add both the Research and Academic Research Infrastructure accounts together, since NSF folded some infrastructure money into the Research account. The total of the administration’s request is $2,472 million, compared to the committee bill’s total of $2,440 million. Current spending totals $2,414 million.)

By a one vote margin, the committee included the word “Engineering” in the foundation’s name. On another party line vote, the committee refused to reinstate cuts made in NSF’s salary authorization level, and reaffirmed the bill’s instruction to NSF to get rid of one of its directorates.

During consideration of the NASA portion of the bill, the committee considered an amendment to terminate the space station program, which was defeated by a vote of 11-33. Another amendment to reduce the $1.8 billion station authorization by $100 million also failed by a similar margin. The bill increases the authorization for space science account by $310 million over the administration’s request, which Walker said, “when aggregated with Life and Microgravity Research, achieves the number one recommendation of the Augustine Commission - a 20 percent share of the NASA budget” for space science. A committee chart shows that the bill’s authorization levels for NASA Space Science and NASA Life and Microgravity Research total $2,665.9 million. The administration request is $2,355.8 million; current spending is $2,521.1 million. The committee bill would offset this increase by a $375 million reduction in Mission to Planet Earth, with the cuts being made in PM-1 and Chem platforms and EOS DIS. Rep. Ralph Hall (D-TX) warned, “insisting on such large cuts may only ensure that this bill never becomes law.”

The committee bill includes an authorization for NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research program. It would increase funding by almost $10 million to $280.6 million. The administration request was $270.7 million; current spending is $259.0 million. NIST’s Industrial Technology Services, including its Advanced Technology Program, were not authorized. An amendment to authorize these programs failed on a party line vote.

The committee did not include a Department of Energy title in its bill, a last minute decision having been made to pull these provisions because of differences over funding levels. Brown released a table listing anticipated authorization levels for various DOE programs contained in Chairman Walker’s original version of the bill. High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics total spending were to be authorized at the requested FY 1997 levels. The Materials Sciences component of the Basic Energy Sciences budget was to have been increased by $20 million over the request. The Fusion Energy Sciences authorization level was to have been cut $55.6 million from the request of $255.6 million, a figure $27.4 million lower than current year spending. Again, note that these authorization levels were NOT included in the bill. A separate DOE bill may be marked up in coming weeks.

Chairman Walker plans to introduce this bill, the Omnibus Civilian Science Authorization Act, on the House floor in the near future. A floor vote is scheduled on May 9. It is expected that the Senate will not act on this bill, as was the case for a similar bill last year. House action on some appropriations bills is expected by late May.

The bottom line: while it is doubtful this bill will ever become law, it gives a clear indication of the direction of science spending in the upcoming fiscal year. There seems to be fairly general agreement about NSF funding. NASA funding is more uneven, Republicans boosting space science and life & microgravity sciences while reducing Mission to Planet Earth spending. NIST’s core programs enjoy support, while differences over ATP remain stark. DOE funding remains uncertain. At this point, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, and Materials Science (BES) funding seem to be in general agreement; Fusion Energy Sciences appears to be in some trouble.