Congressional Committees with Jurisdiction over R&D

Members of Congress make numerous decisions impacting the funding and performance of federal R&D. Yet many complain that they get little input from the science community. In communicating with your Members, it is valuable to know what committees play a role in setting science priorities, policy, and budgets.

Those Members with probably the biggest impact on science projects are the appropriators -- the Members who hold the purse strings. There are 13 appropriations subcommittees in each chamber of Congress. Within those subcommittees, R&D agencies often have to compete for funding with other priorities, such as veterans’ medical care or the Army Corps of Engineers. The drafting of appropriations bills usually begins in the spring, after the President has submitted his budget request, and after Congress has divvied up funding allocations - called 602(b) allocations - to each of the subcommittees. The appropriations bills must work their way through the House, from subcommittee to the full Appropriations Committee to the floor, then repeat the process in the Senate. The House and Senate then hold a conference to reconcile their versions of a bill, so it can be sent to the President for signing. Ideally, this process is completed before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

Authorization bills are also relevant to science policy and funding. Authorizing committees hold oversight hearings to review, revise and extend existing programs and approve new ones. The bills that come out of an authorizing committee provide funding caps or guidelines for federal programs. While in theory, appropriators are supposed to be guided by authorizing legislation when they dole out federal funds, in reality they do not necessarily heed the authorizers, and many authorization bills never make it out of committee and into law. However, authorization bills, if they are timely, can often influence funding for a project or agency by informing appropriators of other Members’ opinions on it.

There are several major appropriations and authorization (sub)committees in each chamber that have jurisdiction over most federal R&D programs. In both the House and the Senate, the following appropriations subcommittees provide funding for science and technology (among other programs):

House and Senate Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Subcommittees: NIST House and Senate Energy & Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees: DOE civilian R&D programs House National Security and Senate Armed Services Appropriations Subcommittees: DOD R&D (6.1, 6.2, & 6.3) House and Senate VA/HUD/Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittees: NSF, NASA In the Senate, the primary authorizing subcommittee for most civilian R&D programs is the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. In the House, the House Science Committee has jurisdiction over most civilian R&D. Military R&D is under the jurisdiction of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Acquisition and Technology in the Senate, and the House National Security Subcommittee on Military R&D in the House.

To know what Members sit on committees of interest to you, or to determine if your representative or senators are on a certain committee, FYI has posted the rosters for the above-mentioned committees and subcommittees on our Web site.

The rosters can be found in the FYI archives, numbered sequentially as FYIs #58-70: see http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/1998/

Alternatively, you can look up committee rosters based on a committee’s jurisdiction over a particular agency or department by going to “Communicating with Congress” under Science Policy on our Web site and looking at Key Chairmen and their Committees - By Jurisdiction: see http://www.aip.org/gov/commcong.html