(This legislative update has been assembled by the UH System Office of Governmental Relations and edited by the UH Office of University Relations as a service to the UH System community.)
The U.S. Senate VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee has recently approved the VA-HUD-IA appropriations bill. This bill provides funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Overall, the Senate Subcommittee would provide NSF with $4.672 billion for FY 2002, an increase of 5.7 percent over FY 2001. The Senate bill applauds the Foundation's proposal for increasing the stipend levels for graduate students in its education programs.
The Research and Related Activities account (RRA) would receive $3.514 billion in the Senate bill, an increase of 5.1 percent over the FY 2001 level of $3.343 billion. The increased funding is used to provide the following increases to the budget request:
| Disciplinary Research: $75 million | |
|---|---|
| Nanoscience and Engineering Research: | $25 million |
| Information Technology Research: | $25 million |
| Plant Genome Research: | $10 million |
| Mathematics: | $5 million |
| Major Research Instrumentation: | $25 million |
| Regional Innovation Clusters: | $10 million |
| Polar activities, the academic fleet, Ocean Drilling Program, and other national NSF user facilities facing significantly increased energy costs: | $12.5 million |
These additional funds would be added to the President's request. For example, the President's request included $141.48 million for the MPS directorates Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).
In the Senate bill, DMS would receive $146.48 million, an increase of 20.5 percent over FY 2001. The Senate bill also would provide $10 million to maintain the Homestake Mine site in Lead, South Dakota and determine the feasibility of converting the mine into "a world-class underground laboratory for physics, geology, and extreme biology." All other programs within RRA would receive the amounts appropriated under the President's budget request.
The Education and Human Resources account (EHR) would receive the President's request of $872.4 million in FY 2002, an increase of 11 percent over FY 2001.
The Senate bill provides $190 million for the new Math and Science Partnerships Initiative (MPSI), $10 million less than the amount requested by the President. $130 million is identified for this program with an additional $60 million derived from the H-1B Visa Receipts.
In addition to funding for this new program, the Senate bill contains language which directs the Foundation to "submit a report with the FY 2002 operating plan that outlines how the education systemic reform and elementary and secondary education efforts will be supported within this new program.
The Senate bill also provides $15 million for the reinstatement of the Office of Innovation Partnerships, which was not included in the President's request, and $20 million for a new undergraduate workforce initiative. This latter initiative would be used to "establish a new merit-based, competitive grants program for colleges and universities" to increase the number of degree recipients in science and engineering.
The Major Research Equipment account (MRE) would receive $108.8 million in FY 2002, which is a $12.5 million reduction from FY 2001. The Senate bill would fund the same three continuing projects as the President's request plus an additional $12.5 million for the initial construction of ALMA.
Large Hadron Collider (LHC): The LHC, a physics facility being constructed at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, would receive the requested funding of $16.9 million in FY 2002, an increase of $0.54 million over FY 2001. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES): NEES would receive the requested funding level of $24.4 million, a decrease of $3.74 million from FY 2001.
Terascale Computing Systems: The Senate bill would provide the requested funding level of $55 million, an increase of $10.1 million over FY 2001.
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA): The Senate bill would provide $12.5 million for initial construction of the radio telescope. However, ALMA funds would not be released until NSF has assured the Senate Committee that management and financial controls have been established so that capital construction expenditures are derived solely from MRE appropriations.
IceCube Neutrino Detector: The Senate bill does not provide any funding for IceCube. However, the bill does contain language that encourages the development of IceCube. The House bill would provide $15 million for this new physics/ astronomy project recently approved by the National Science Board.
HIAPER: The Senate bill does not provide any funding for HIAPER. The House bill would provide $35.0 million.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The bill would provide NASA $14.561 million, an increase of $307.5 million over the FY 2001 funding level of $14.285 billion and $50 million above the President's request of $14.511 billion. However, this is $364 million below the House funding level of $14.926 billion for FY 2002. Generally, the Subcommittee provides the research programs the level of funding requested by the Administration, only making significant changes to the Mars, Europa and EOSDIS programs. However, the Subcommittee also included a significantly higher number of earmarks than were included in the House bill.
Office of Space Science
The Subcommittee provides the Office of Space Science the request level ($2.79 billion) with the following changes: the bill reduces the Mars Surveyor program by $50 million; reduces the Europa mission by $48.6 million, and then restores $43.6 million to a focused outer planets exploration program to be openly competed; adds $5 million to Solar Probe; and adds $20 million to the Living with a Star program. The subcommittee also appropriates NGST the $92.1 million requested by the Administration.
Office of Earth Science
The Subcommittee provides an additional $31.1 million for the EOSDIS program with several significant modifications including $40 million for EOSDIS Core Systems ($27 million of which is for the Synergy program), $12.5 million for data processing and distribution, a reduction of $8 million from the EOS Federation program, and a $15 million reduction from EOS Algorithm development. In addition, the Subcommittee provides an additional $7.5 million in the EOS Follow-on program for a tropospheric winds mission data purchase.
Office of Biological and Physical Research (BPR) The BPR, formerly the Office of Life and Microgravity Research, is given responsibility for all research conducted on the ISS. The Subcommittee also provides an additional $50 million for ISS research, for total funding of $333.6 million. The House bill provides BPR $318.6 million for ISS research.
Once all the funding changes are tallied, we will provide a more specific funding level for each program office within NASA.
The full Senate Appropriations Committee is slated to consider this bill later today. The House version of the bill is scheduled to be considered on the House floor as early as Thursday, July 26. We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops and will report any significant changes.