On October 9, the House
Appropriations Committee drafted an FY 2003 VA-HUD appropriations bill
(H.R. 5605) that would provide a marked increase for R&D in the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The House would provide EPA with
a total budget of $8.2 billion in FY 2003, $126 million or 1.6 percent
more than FY 2002 and some $584 million amount above the request. In
the House plan, EPA’s R&D
funding would rise 8.3 percent for a total of $628 million,
including provisions to more than double the Superfund research program
(see Table).
The House FY
2003 VA-HUD bill would provide $91 billion for discretionary programs.
The bill funds science agencies including the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National
Science Foundation (NSF), EPA, and non-R&D programs for veterans
and housing. The President had requested $93 billion for the bill’s
programs; the majority of the decrease in funding would be borne by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is also funded by the
bill. The House would also eliminate the Corporation for National and
Community Service and find savings in several housing programs.
In July, the Senate drafted its version of the bill with nearly
the same total as the House.
EPA requested
$7.6 billion for its total budget, a cut of $508 million or 6.8 percent
from FY 2002 because of cuts to State and Tribal Assistance Grants,
perennially a higher priority for Congress than for EPA, cuts in funds
for congressionally designated projects, and the inclusion in the FY
2002 total of $226 million in one-time emergency funds provided to EPA
in the aftermath of the September 11 and anthrax attacks. The emergency
funds paid for anthrax decontamination, vulnerability assessments of
drinking water supplies, and security upgrades for EPA facilities. The
House would boost total EPA funding above the FY 2002 level by adding
$325 million to the request for State and Tribal Assistance Grants and
also adding funds for Science and Technology, Environmental Programs
and Management, and the Superfund program, mostly in the form of congressionally
designated projects. The $8.2 billion House appropriation would be $126
million more than FY 2002 level including emergency funds (see Table),
while the Senate would provide even more with $8.3 billion.
EPA’s R&D, mostly funded in the Science and Technology account, would total $628 million, up $48
million from FY 2002 for an 8.3 percent increase. The Senate would provide
nearly the same amount, $624 million. EPA requested a 6.4 percent increase
to $617 million, mostly for new homeland security investments. (For
details of the Senate appropriation for EPA R&D, see the August
6 AAAS R&D Funding Update. For details of the request for EPA,
see Chapter 12 of AAAS Report XXVII: R&D
FY 2003). EPA requested $75 million in new funding from the
Superfund program for building decontamination research to build on
the capabilities EPA demonstrated in cleaning the Senate
Hart Building
of anthrax. Both the House and the Senate would provide $50 million;
these funds would be in addition to Superfund’s ongoing hazardous-substances
research program funded at $37 million in both FY 2002 and FY 2003.
The House would add funds to other EPA R&D areas. While the EPA
proposed to eliminate dozens of congressionally designated research
projects and keep core research funding mostly flat, the House bill
would add $37 million for 35 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
and the new Superfund R&D funding would leave most core EPA research
programs near the FY 2003 request and FY 2002 funding levels if not
slightly below. Among the new starts proposed by EPA and approved by
the House and the Senate are $2.7 million for a Computational Toxicology
Program and $4.9 million for Biotechnology Research.
The House would reject the proposed elimination of the STAR (Science to Achieve
Results) Fellowships Program but would provide only $5 million (half
the FY 2002 total) within the S&T account. This program helps to
fund graduate education and research in environmental research disciplines.
The Senate would provide the full $10 million FY 2002 funding level.
Included in EPA’s
S&T account for FY 2003 is $8 million for the
Homestake Mine. Last year, Congress approved $10 million
in FY 2002 in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
to maintain the closing Homestake Mine in
South Dakota in preparation
for possible construction of a National Underground Science Laboratory
for particle physics research on the site. The FY 2003 site maintenance
costs would be covered by EPA; next, the National Science Foundation
(NSF) will review the laboratory proposal and would cover the laboratory
construction costs and operating costs if the project is approved by
the National Science Board.
Although not an
R&D program, the President’s budget proposed to eliminate EPA’s
Environmental Education program (in the Environmental Programs and Management
account) in FY 2003 and transfer the program to the National Science
Foundation (NSF). The program received $9.2 million in FY 2002; both
the House and the Senate would provide the same level of funding in
FY 2003 within EPM and would reject the proposed transfer.
The House would
mostly stick to the EPA’s priorities for FY 2003, except for boosts
in funding for State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STG),
and Superfund. Although EPA requested a cut in STG from $3.7 billion
to $3.5 billion, the House would provide $3.8 billion. Most of this
money goes to state and local governments. The Superfund
program would climb $62 million from the $1.3 billion FY 2002 funding
level. For Environmental Programs
and Management, which funds most of EPA’s operating expenses, the
House bill would provide $2.1 billion, $18 million more than FY 2002
but $64 million more than the request because of congressionally designated
projects.
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 2003 request and FY 2003 House 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 $84 million
in FY 2003, up from $76 million in FY 2002 and the request.
The House VA-HUD
bill is now ready for floor debate, but consideration will be delayed
until after the November elections. If the House does not approve the
VA-HUD bill by the end of the year, a new bill will have to be drafted
in the 108th Congress in 2003. The same is true for the Senate
version of the bill; although it was drafted in July, it will not make
it to the Senate floor before the November elections. Until a final
FY 2003 appropriations bill is signed into law, which may not be until
next year, all programs (including EPA programs) will operate at FY
2002 funding levels on a series of continuing resolutions (temporary
funding bills). Although the House and the Senate are not far apart
on the EPA budget, there are major differences between their funding
levels for other programs in the VA-HUD bill, and these differences
could delay the eventual House-Senate conference.
- October 16, 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)
