The House Appropriations
Committee recently completed its version of the Energy & Water appropriations
bill (H.R. 5431), which provides funding for the majority of Department
of Energy (DOE) programs; in July, the Committee approved its Interior
appropriations bill (H.R. 5093), which funds the remainder of DOE. Together,
the two bills would provide $8.5
billion for DOE’s R&D programs in FY 2003, $176 million or 2.1 percent
more than FY 2002. This figure is $209 million (2.5 percent) above
the Bush Administration’s request of $8.3 billion for DOE R&D (see
Table), but $208 million below the $8.7
billion for DOE R&D provided for by the Senate Appropriations Committee
in July (see the July 26 AAAS R&D Funding Update
on DOE). Under the House action, R&D in DOE’s mission areas
of science and defense would remain virtually unchanged from FY 2002
levels, with the Office of Science seeing a small decrease. DOE’s energy
R&D would increase by 7.5 percent in the House bills. (For details
of R&D in the FY 2003 request, please see Chapter
9 of AAAS
Report XXVII: R&D FY 2003).
The total FY 2003 DOE budget
would be $22.1 billion in the House bills, an increase of 3.3 percent
above FY 2002 levels and nearly identical to the Bush Administration’s
request (see Table). About two-thirds of
the DOE budget goes to defense-related activities involving the U.S.
nuclear weapons stockpile and related environmental clean-up costs.
The House would provide $15.6 billion for DOE’s defense activities (up
3.2 percent; see Table).
In contrast to the Bush
Administration’s proposed cuts in many of DOE’s energy R&D programs,
the House would provide increases in selected energy programs. While
the Administration requested a sharp 17.3 percent cut in Fossil
Energy R&D, the House would boost funding by 17.7 percent over
FY 2002 to $592 million, $176 million above the request. The committee
report that accompanies the bill asserts that the nation “will continue
to rely on traditional fuels for the majority of its energy requirements
for the foreseeable future, and the activities funded through this account
ensure that energy technologies continue to improve with respect to
emissions reductions and control and energy efficiency.” Thus, the legislation
provides for increases above the request for fuels and power systems
research (e.g., integrated gasification, fuel cells,
and transportation fuels and chemicals), natural gas technologies research
(e.g., exploration and production,
advanced drilling, and gas hydrates), and oil technologies research
(e.g., exploration and production,
reservoir life extension, and environmental protection). The House would
also increase Energy Conservation
R&D by 8.6 percent over FY 2002 to $503 million in FY 2003, $90
million above the request. Among activities that would receive increases
above the request in this account are building research and standards,
energy efficiency science, and vehicle technology R&D.
Overall, DOE’s Science R&D program would witness
a small decrease in funding, both in comparison to FY 2002 levels and
to the Bush Administration request. Compared to FY 2002 levels, Science
R&D would decline 0.3 percent or $10 million to $3.0 billion; compared
to the request, Science R&D would fall by $21 million. Fusion
Energy Sciences would receive $247 million for R&D in FY 2003
(down 0.2 percent from FY 2002). The High
Energy Physics (up 1.1 percent to $721 million) and Nuclear Physics (up 5.9 percent to $380 million) programs would both
receive increases. Within the Basic
Energy Sciences (BES) program, the House would provide $225 million
for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the
same as the request, but a decrease of 22.8 percent from the FY 2002
level, or a $66 million decline. This would allow for an increase in
other BES programs within a total BES budget of $1.0 billion (up 1.4
percent). The Biological and Environmental Research
(BER) program would be the R&D program within Science to witness
the largest absolute decline from the FY 2002 level -- $69 million --
or a 12.1 percent reduction, mostly because the House would not renew
numerous FY 2002 congressional earmarks.
The report accompanying
the House bill voices a concern about the growing imbalance in the federal
investment in research in the physical sciences versus the life sciences.
The physical sciences, the report maintains, “provide the foundation
of knowledge for many fields of scientific endeavor … and have many
possible applications, including but not limited to national security
and homeland defense.” The report then goes on to say that “the Committee
hopes that the Department submits a fiscal year 2004 budget request
that will support a robust physical sciences research program in the
Office of Science.” Although this signal from the House is clear, it
is also clear that the House would not even meet the Office of Science
request in FY 2003, much less provide increases, because of a low total
for the Energy & Water bill.
On the defense side, most
of DOE’s R&D is funded by the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which was created three
years ago by Congress in response to national security concerns and
allegations of espionage at DOE weapons laboratories. The House would
modestly increase the total NNSA budget up to $7.9 billion (up 1.2 percent
from FY 2002). This contrasts with the Senate version which would boost
the NNSA budget to $8.3 billion, an increase of 8.9 percent. The Senate
has traditionally been more supportive of NNSA activities than either
the House or the White House because of the patronage of Senator Pete
V. Domenici (R-NM), ranking member of the Energy-Water subcommittee.
New Mexico is home to
two of the three major NNSA laboratories (Los Alamos
and Sandia; the other is Lawrence Livermore in California).
Maintaining the U.S.
nuclear weapons stockpile is one of DOE’s major defense responsibilities,
and since the U.S.
banned nuclear testing DOE has relied on science to ensure the continuing
reliability and safety of U.S.
nuclear weapons. DOE’s major R&D program in that effort is in Weapons
Activities. The House would provide
$2.9 billion for Weapons Activities R&D in FY 2003, a modest 3.3
percent or $91 million increase. Note that this is 1.7 percent or
$48 million below the request. This program funds most of the R&D
at the three weapons labs which are responsible for the nation’s nuclear
weapons stockpile. Within the overall portfolio, the House would slightly
raise funding for Advanced Simulation
and Computing, an effort to develop the next generation of computer
processing technologies to better model nuclear explosions, to $725
million (up 1.0 percent).
Seen in the context of the
overall FY 2003 appropriations process, the House action on the Energy
& Water bill comports to the emerging pattern of House appropriators
generally adhering to the spending totals set forth in the Bush Administration
request and Senate appropriators typically exceeding these totals. As
a result, Senate appropriations for R&D programs have in most cases
exceeded the House funding levels and the requested funding levels,
especially for domestic (nondefense) programs.
Congress has once again
failed to complete the appropriations process before the start of the
fiscal year (October 1), thereby necessitating the passage of a continuing
resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running. Congress has
already passed one CR to fund federal agencies until October 4 and will
likely adopt a second CR that would provide funding until October 11.
The full House approved its Interior bill on July 17, but it is unlikely
to take up the Energy & Water bill this month. Further action on
the DOE budget will be delayed until after the November elections, and
possibly until the 108th Congress in January. Until then,
assuming that Congress approves further continuing resolutions, DOE
and other agencies will operate their programs at FY 2002 funding levels.
- October 3, 2002
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
science_policy@aaas.org
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
(new URL)
