Final Outcome of Federal Funding for Environmental R&D in FY 2007
The tortuous appropriations process for fiscal year 2007 came to an unceremonious end on February 15, when President Bush signed a massive $463.5 billion joint funding resolution into law. This full-year continuing resolution provides flat funding for most federal agencies for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2006.
The outgoing 109th Congress failed to complete action on 9 of the 11 annual appropriations bills that provide funding for all federal agencies, with the exceptions of defense and homeland security. In order to keep the government from shutting down, the outgoing Congress passed a series of short-term continuing resolutions that funded most federal agencies at flat or declining levels for the first several months of the fiscal year. The 109th Congress prolonged its agony by convening a lame duck session after the November elections. After a year of effort, the outgoing Congress adjourned without passing any of the remaining appropriations bills.
The incoming Democratic leadership of the 110th Congress decided to dispense with the nine remaining appropriations bills and pass a full-year continuing resolution instead. The full-year continuing resolution for FY 2007 has two major policies:
- The budgets of most federal agencies are frozen at the last year’s funding level. This policy is highly advantageous for agencies that were slated for substantial budget cuts, such as NOAA. Conversely, it is disadvantageous for agencies that were slated for substantial budget increases, such as NSF. However, the full-year continuing resolution contains limited budget adjustments to address the nation’s most important policy concerns.
- The full year continuing resolution eliminates the vast majority of congressionally designated earmarks that have proliferated in recent appropriations bills. In some cases, the elimination of congressional earmarks may result in increased funding for core research programs even if an agency’s overall budget is flat or declining.
Total Federal Funding for R&D. Under the full-year continuing resolution, federal funding for research and development will rise to a record level of $139.9 billion, an increase of $4.6 billion or 3.4 percent, in fiscal year 2007. However, funding for research will be almost constant and nearly the entire increase will be devoted to development, particularly weapons development programs at the Department of Defense and human spacecraft development programs at NASA.
Federal funding for research in FY 2007 will remain nearly unchanged at $56.8 billion, a net increase of 0.2 percent or $93 million. After adjusting for inflation, federal funding for research will decline for the third consecutive year. Increases in research funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST), and Department of Energy (DOE), and National Institutes of Health (NIH) are offset by sharp decreases in research funding for NASA and the Department of Homeland Security and by smaller cuts at other agencies.
The following discussion illustrates how the full-year continuing resolution has differing effects on two major science agencies. NSF was slated for a large budget increase and ended up with a smaller increase. NOAA was slated for a significant budget cut and ended up with a flat budget. In the end, NSF has a lower budget than initially proposed and NOAA has a higher budget than initially proposed.
National Science Foundation (NSF). The budget of the National Science Foundation will rise by $335 million or 6.0 percent to $5.92 billion in FY 2007. The entire increase in NSF’s budget is allocated to its Research and Related Activities account, which will increase by 7.7 percent to $4.7 billion. All other NSF accounts, including Education and Human Resources and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction, will have flat budgets in FY 2007.
Although the National Science Foundation fared well in the context of flat funding for most federal agencies, the final NSF budget for FY 2007 is substantially below the amount requested by the President and initially approved by the House of Representatives. They planned to increase the NSF budget by $439 million or 7.9 percent to $6.02 billion. The 7.9 percent increase proposed for NSF was intended as the first installment of a plan to double the agency’s budget over the next ten years. Doubling the budget of the National Science Foundation remains a goal of the President’s American Competitive Initiative, legislation pending before Congress, and reports by the National Academy of Sciences and other organizations.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The budget for NOAA will remain nearly flat at approximately $3.9 billion in FY 2007. This is a tremendous boost for NOAA because it had been operating for several months under a series of short-term continuing resolutions that cut its budget by over $500 million.
The final outcome for NOAA belies enormous swings in its budget during the FY 2007 appropriations cycle. The President proposed cutting NOAA’s budget by approximately $250 million. In June, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would cut NOAA’s budget by over $500 million to $3.4 billion in FY 2007. In a remarkable turn of events, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill in July that would increase NOAA’s budget by nearly $500 million to $4.4 billion. However, the full Senate failed to complete action on the bill before it adjourned and there was no opportunity to reconcile the $1 billion gap between the House and Senate bills.
The full-year continuing resolution sets NOAA’s FY 2007 budget at last year’s level. It also removes numerous earmarks in NOAA’s budget. The elimination of congressional earmarks in NOAA’s budget may result in increases for core research programs even though the overall budget is flat.
Other Agencies.
- Funding for the U.S. Geological Survey is nearly unchanged at $978 million in FY 2007 and its R&D budget is nearly unchanged at $560 million. It appears that the USGS will restore funding for two major program cuts that were proposed in the President’s budget request.
- The budget for the Environmental Protection Agency is nearly flat at $7.6 billion in FY 2007 and its R&D budget is expected to be unchanged at $600 million.
- Total funding for the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is nearly constant at $1.2 billion in FY 2007 and its R&D budget declines by 2.0 percent to $654 million. Significant budget shifts among CSREES programs are expected. The R&D budget of the USDA Forest Service is unchanged at $322 million.
- NASA’s total budget is expected to decline by 2.5 percent to $16.2 billion but R&D funding will increase by 3.6 percent to $11.7 billion. NASA plans large increases in human spacecraft development programs and decreases in some research programs.
- The Department of Energy’s R&D budget for FY 2007 is $9.1 billion, an increase of $365 million or 4.2 percent. The DOE budget includes an increase of $200 million or 6.0 percent for the Office of Science and an increase of $184 million or 23.6 percent for efficiency and renewables. In addition, the elimination of more than $250 million in earmarks in the DOE budget will give the agency tremendous flexibility in redirecting these funds to its core research programs.
Increases in funding for science and technology in the full-year continuing resolution reflect strong bipartisan support for these programs in the House and Senate. Data sources for this article include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, federal agency budget documents, and the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Craig Schiffries, Ph.D.
Director of Science Policy and Senior Scientist
National Council for Science and the Environment
1707 H Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202-530-5810
E-mail: policy@NCSEonline.org
