House Appropriators Pass VA/HUD Funding Bill: NSF

On June 25, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 1999 VA/HUD appropriations bill, which funds NSF and NASA, among other programs. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version on June 11 (see FYIs #90 , 95 ).

The House bill would provide less in total funding for NSF than President Clinton requested. However, Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) and Mark Neumann (R-WI) succeeded in getting an amendment passed that would raise the amount of funding for Research and Related Activities (R&RA), and the NSF total, by an additional $70.0 million above what the VA/HUD subcommittee had recommended on June 18. Although less than the request, this is greater than the funding level recommended for NSF by Senate appropriators.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION TOTAL: The House Subcommittee would increase NSF funding $268.0 million, or 7.8 percent, over the FY 1998 level, for a total of $3.697 billion. The Senate bill would provide a 6.3 percent increase, to $3.644 billion; President Clinton asked for $3.773 billion, a 10.0 percent increase.

RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES: For R&RA, the House bill recommends $2.815 billion, $269 million (or 10.6 percent) over FY 1998. This is $90.0 million more than the Senate bill provides, but $32.0 million less than requested.

EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES: This account would receive $643.0 million, $10 million (or 1.6 percent) more than FY 1998. Both the request and the Senate bill would provide $683.0 million.

MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT: Major Research Equipment would be funded at $90.0 million, 17.4 percent lower than FY 1998 funding of $109.0 million. The request and the Senate bill would provide $94.0 million. The House subcommittee would defer funding for the Polar Cap Observatory, but provide additional money for the South Pole station upgrade.

SALARIES AND EXPENSES: While the Senate bill would hold Salaries and Expenses flat at $137.0 million, the House bill would provide the full request of $144.0 million.

NASA: Details on House Appropriations Committee action on the NASA portion of the VA/HUD bill will be provided in a future FYI.

Report language for the House bill is not yet available, so it is not known whether House appropriators followed the lead of the Senate in asking for restricted competitions to be held for specific projects.

Floor action on the VA/HUD bill by both the House and Senate is expected in July, when Congress returns from its Fourth of July recess.