Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee drafted
an FY 2002 VA-HUD appropriations bill that would provide slightly declining
funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The FY 2002 EPA
budget would fall by 0.8 percent or $60 million to $7.8 billion under
the Senate plan, but this appropriation would be above EPA's requested
cut to $7.3 billion. EPA's R&D would be funded below the FY 2001
level for an FY 2002 total of $600 million, $9 million or 1.5 percent
less than FY 2001 (see Table).
The Senate FY 2002 VA-HUD bill would provide $84 billion
for discretionary programs. The bill funds science agencies including
the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), and EPA, and non-R&D programs for veterans and housing.
The President requested $83 billion for the bill's programs, and thus
the Senate had more money to allocate for EPA than the request; the
Senate would provide $435 million more than the request for the total
EPA budget, and $31 million more for EPA's R&D programs. The House
version of the bill is expected to total $85 billion (details of House
appropriations for EPA will be available shortly).
EPA requested $7.3 billion for its total budget, a
cut of $494 million or 6.3 percent from FY 2001 because of cuts to State
and Tribal Assistance Grants, perennially a higher priority for Congress
than for EPA, and cuts in funds for congressionally designated projects.
The Senate would keep total EPA funding close to the FY 2001 level by
adding $314 million to the request for State and Tribal Assistance Grants
and also adding funds for Science and Technology, and Environmental
Programs and Management, mostly in the form of congressionally designated
projects. The $7.8 billion Senate appropriation is $60 million less
than FY 2001 (see Table).
EPA's R&D, mostly funded in the Science
and Technology account, would total $600 million, down $9 million
from FY 2001 for a 1.5 percent cut. EPA requested a cut in R&D down
to $569 million (down 6.5 percent), mostly because EPA proposed, as
it did in the Clinton Administration, to eliminate dozens of congressionally
designated research projects while keeping core research funding flat.
The Senate bill would be $31 million above the request, but this would
be entirely due to the addition of some $33 million for 28 congressionally
designated research projects, mostly in the Science and Technology account
with some in the normally non-R&D Environmental Programs and Management
account. These additions would leave most core EPA research programs
near the FY 2002 request and FY 2001 funding levels if not slightly
below.
The Senate would mostly stick to the EPA's priorities
for FY 2002, except for a large boost in funding for State and Tribal
Assistance Grants. Although EPA requested a cut in this program
from $3.6 billion to $3.3 billion, the Senate would provide nearly the
FY 2001 funding level. Most of this money goes to state and local governments.
For Environmental Programs and Management, which funds most of
EPA's operating expenses, the Senate bill would provide $2.1 billion,
$21 million less than FY 2001 but $89 million more than the request
because of congressionally designated projects. Within the amount, however,
the Senate emphatically directs EPA to fully fund its enforcement and
compliance activities, rather than cutting jobs and shifting responsibilities
to the states as EPA had proposed. The Superfund program would
stay even at the $1.2 billion FY 2001 funding level. Superfund would
continue to support $37 million (same as FY 2001) in research on hazardous
substances.
Superfund used to transfer funds to the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), for its research program on environmental health, but
beginning in FY 2001 and continuing with the FY 2002 request and FY
2002 Senate bill these funds are appropriated directly to NIEHS, and
appear as part of the NIH budget. The NIEHS Superfund appropriation,
funded in the VA-HUD bill separately from the regular NIEHS appropriation,
would be $70 million for FY 2002, the same as the request and up from
$63 million in FY 2001.
The House and Senate versions of the VA-HUD bill are
due for floor debate and approval before the August congressional recess.
A House-Senate conference committee to produce the final version of
the bill is not expected to meet until September.
- July 25, 2001
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/R&D
