Budget

The final appropriations agreement for fiscal year 2017 provides a 3.1 percent increase for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Planetary Science will receive a 12 percent increase and is instructed to proceed with a Europa lander mission. Heliophysics will receive a smaller increase while Earth Science funding will remain unchanged. As work on the James Webb Space Telescope ramps down, total funds allocated to Astrophysics activities will decrease.

Congress has reached a final agreement on a fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill that boosts funding for a few science agencies while holding others steady. The bill stands in stark contrast to a Trump administration proposal that would have imposed deep cuts on federal science to help pay for a defense and border security buildup.

President Trump has asked Congress to impose an $18 billion cut in non-defense spending in its appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2017. According to a leaked document, the White House has suggested that about $3 billion be taken from R&D programs. Several key congressional appropriators have said it is too late in the fiscal year to consider such large cuts.

The House Science Committee’s Republican members will seek increased support for basic physical sciences research in the fiscal year 2018 budget cycle, and they are renewing efforts to influence the allocation of research funding at several agencies.

Following the release of President Trump’s budget blueprint, scientific and university community leaders have spoken out in a chorus of opposition and dismay. Congressional leaders are exhibiting a more varied range of reactions.

President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget would cut the Department of Energy’s Office of Science by 17 percent, NASA by about 1 percent, and NIH by 18 percent, while the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy within DOE would be eliminated. The budget outline is silent on NSF and leaves out top-line funding levels for a number of major research agencies and offices.

President Trump’s “blueprint” of his forthcoming fiscal year 2018 budget request reveals that the administration is targeting many federal science agencies for deep cuts. Reactions from congressional leaders have ranged from supportive to muted to outraged.

Following a failed attempt last year, Congress has passed the bipartisan “NASA Transition Authorization Act.” The bill, which emphasizes human space exploration, affirms existing NASA priorities. However, it leaves ambiguous policy concerning contentious issues such as NASA’s Earth science activities.

A draft version of the fiscal year 2018 budget outline for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposes a 17 percent cut in funding for the weather and climate agency. NOAA research would face a 26 percent cut, while satellites and data would be cut 22 percent.

Mick Mulvaney, the new director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been a leader in efforts to downsize the federal government. During the Senate confirmation process, he said he believes there is a “proper role for federal government in research.”