Highlights
- Congress provides $8.4 billion for the total budget of the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in FY 2004, $287 million more (3.5 percent)
than FY 2003 (see Table).
- EPA’s R&D funding shows a smaller 1.6 percent increase to $654 million,
primarily because one-time emergency funding for building decontamination
research in FY 2003 is replaced by increases in core R&D programs.
Nearly
four months after the start of FY 2004, Congress gave final approval
on January 22 to an omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2673) that sets
final funding levels for EPA and several other R&D funding agencies.
The House approved the omnibus bill on December 8, but the Senate delayed
final action until January 22; President Bush is expected to sign the
bill into law by the end of January. The bill provides EPA with a total
budget of $8.4 billion in FY 2004, $287 million or 3.5 percent more
than FY 2003 and $735 million more than the Administration’s request.
Congress also adds funds to EPA’s R&D programs for a total of $654
million, an increase of 1.6 percent from FY 2003. (For details of R&D
in the FY 2004 request, please see Chapter 13
of AAAS Report XXVIII: R&D FY 2004.) (Note:
the figures in the Table are adjusted to reflect an across-the-board
cut of 0.59 percent included in the omnibus bill).
EPA R&D in FY 2004 Final Appropriations
EPA requested
$7.6 billion for its total budget, a cut of $448 million or 5.5 percent
from FY 2003 because of steep cuts to State and Tribal Assistance Grants,
perennially a higher priority for Congress than for EPA. Congress responded
by boosting total EPA funding well above the FY 2003 level through additional
funds for State and Tribal Assistance Grants (see Table).
EPA’s R&D, mostly funded in the Science and Technology account, totals $654 million in the omnibus
bill, up $11 million or 1.6 percent. EPA requested a steep cut, partially
because EPA proposed to delete nearly all of the $53 million in congressional
earmarks added to the EPA budget in FY 2003 and partially because the
FY 2003 budget contained $49 million in one-time funding from the Superfund
program for building decontamination research to build on the capabilities
EPA demonstrated in cleaning the Senate Hart Building of anthrax. Congress
would agree with the EPA proposal to discontinue the decontamination
research, but would add back the congressional earmarks. The omnibus
bill contains 41 congressional earmarks in the S&T account and another
11 R&D earmarks in normally non-R&D Environmental Programs and
Management account, many of them renewed from FY 2003, for a net increase
to $56 million in R&D earmarks.
R&D in the core S&T account rises substantially by 9.1 percent
to $599 million in FY 2004. Although R&D earmarks within S&T
total $47 million, this is only slightly more than the $46 million in
earmarks in FY 2003 so funding for EPA’s other R&D programs overall
rises significantly. There is enough money for increased funding for
most of EPA’s core research programs, offset by reductions in several
areas such as particulate matter research ($35 million, down from a
$66 million request) and Research to Support Emerging Issues ($32 million,
down from a $41 million request).
In non-R&D
programs, Congress provides $10 million for the STAR Fellowship Program,
the same as the FY 2003 funding level but double the $5 million request
for this program to encourage science and engineering graduate students
to study environmental science fields that could be of use to EPA’s
mission.
Congress mostly
sticks to the EPA’s priorities for FY 2004, except for large boosts
in funding for State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STG).
Although EPA requested a cut in STG from $3.8 billion to $3.1 billion,
the omnibus bill provides $3.9 billion. Most of this money goes to state,
local, and tribal governments to fund environmental projects, primarily
projects to preserve clean drinking water. The Superfund
program increases $34 million from the $1.2 billion FY 2003 funding
level. For Environmental Programs and Management,
which funds most of EPA’s operating expenses, the omnibus bill provides
$2.3 billion, $182 million more than FY 2003 because of congressionally
designated environmental 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 2004 request and FY 2004 omnibus 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, is $79 million
in FY 2004, down slightly from the $84 million FY 2003 funding level.
Impacts of the EPA R&D Portfolio
Figure 1. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
EPA’s basic and applied
research support (excluding development and R&D facilities) comprises
most of EPA’s R&D. As shown in Figure 1, the largest part of EPA’s
research is in the life sciences (primarily biology and environmental
biology), with significant amounts support for the environmental sciences
and engineering as well. Although EPA is the major environmental regulatory
agency in the federal government, many other agencies have environmental
responsibilities related to research, resource stewardship, and economic
management of the environment, so EPA is a relatively small funding
source for R&D related to the environment. In the environmental
sciences, EPA accounts for only 4 percent of total federal support,
while in the life sciences EPA funds only 1 percent of total federal
support.
Roughly 45 percent
of EPA’s R&D is performed in the agency’s own laboratories, while
about 16 percent is performed by industrial firms. Nearly a third of
EPA’s R&D is performed by colleges and universities, a share that
has been growing in recent years as EPA has attempted to expand its
links with academia. The remainder is performed by nonprofit institutions
and state and local governments.
Figure 2. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
EPA’s R&D support has been
relatively stagnant for the last few years after steady growth until FY 1994.
After the 1994 elections when the Republican Party gained control of Congress,
EPA’s R&D budget declined sharply and bottomed out in FY 1996 (see Figure
2). In subsequent years, EPA’s R&D budget has had its ups and downs but
peaked in FY 1999 when the federal budget was in balance and discretionary
spending grew. EPA R&D declined again in FY 2000, but the anthrax
decontamination research in FY 2003 and general increases in FY 2004 recover
some but by no means all of the lost ground. EPA R&D has essentially stayed
at $600 million in today’s dollars for the past decade.
Next Steps
The House approved
the omnibus bill on December 8, and the Senate gave final approval on
January 22. Until a final budget is signed, EPA is operating at last
year's funding levels under a continuing resolution extending through
January 31; President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law by
then.
(This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on the FY 2004 appropriations process.
This analysis includes information on R&D in final appropriations
for EPA. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including
continually updated analyses of R&D in FY 2004 appropriations, is
available on the AAAS R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2004 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.)
- December 10, 2003 (revised January 23)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
