Highlights
- The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) budget for FY 2005 was caught in the difficult VA-HUD spending
bill; increases for veterans, housing, and space programs squeezed out
EPA funding. EPA’s R&D declines
2.8 percent to $598 million (see Table).
- Most R&D
programs remain at or near last year’s levels.
- EPA’s total budget falls $342 million down to $8.0 billion, with
particularly steep cuts to the State and Tribal Assistance Grants program.
EPA R&D in FY 2005 Final Appropriations
On November 20,
Congress came to an agreement on an FY 2005 omnibus appropriations bill
(HR 4818), which incorporates the final version of the FY 2005 VA-HUD
appropriations bill. President Bush signed the bill into law on December
8. The omnibus bill keeps funding for domestic programs flat in FY 2005.
The VA-HUD section of the bill was especially difficult because increases
for veterans, housing, and space programs squeezed out other funding.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget was caught in the squeeze,
especially after factoring in a 0.80 percent across-the-board cut for
most domestic programs. (All figures in this analysis reflect the across-the-board
cut.) The omnibus provides EPA with a total budget of $8.0 billion in
FY 2005, $342 million or 4.1 percent below FY 2004.
EPA’s R&D funding declines 2.8 percent to $598 million, better
than the 7.1 percent cut requested by EPA in February. (For details
of R&D in the FY 2005 request, please see
Chapter 13 of AAAS Report XXIX: R&D FY 2005 or the
February 25 AAAS R&D Funding Update.) Of
the four major R&D funding agencies that see their R&D budgets
decline in FY 2005, three (EPA, NSF, and VA) are in the VA-HUD section
of the omnibus bill.
EPA’s R&D
is mostly funded in the Science
and Technology (S&T) account. R&D in the S&T account
totals $555 million in FY 2005, a 0.9 percent drop, but flat funding
if congressionally designated performer-specific R&D earmarks are
not counted. In the FY 2005 budget, there are more earmarks than in
previous year, but the average earmark is smaller. The FY 2004 omnibus
bill contained 41 congressional earmarks in the S&T account many
of them renewed from FY 2003, for a total of $47 million in R&D
earmarks (AAAS estimates). The earmarks return in the FY 2005 omnibus
bill; 49 congressional R&D earmarks in the S&T account total
$45 million, down $2 million from last year’s total. There are also
several earmarks for non-R&D projects in the S&T account. There
are some modest program increases, such as particulate matter research
from $58 million last year to $61 million this year, and computational
toxicology ($9 million last year to $11.5 million). Most EPA research
areas see flat funding, including water quality research (flat at $45
million) and drinking water research ($44 million).
EPA’s S&T
investments are a small part of the overall EPA portfolio, and are designed
to support EPA’s regulatory and enforcement missions. The EPA R&D
cuts mirror cuts to the overall EPA budget by 4.1 percent down to $8.0
billion, a loss of $342 million (see Table). EPA requested only $3.2
billion for State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STG), perennially a higher priority
for Congress than for EPA, but Congress added to the request, though
not enough to prevent STG funding from declining 7.8 percent to $3.6
billion. Most of this money goes to state, local, and tribal governments
to fund environmental projects, primarily projects to preserve clean
drinking water. For Environmental
Programs and Management, which funds most of EPA’s operating expenses,
Congress appropriated $2.3 billion. The Superfund program declines 0.8
percent to $1.2 billion; Superfund’s funding of R&D declines from
$45 million last year to $36 million in FY 2005.
Figure
1. (click on
the image for PDF)
Impacts of the EPA R&D Portfolio
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 1). 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 recovered 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.
EPA’s basic
and applied research support (excluding development and R&D facilities)
comprises most of EPA’s R&D. 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.
Figure
2. (click on
the image for PDF)
Figure
3. (click on
the image for PDF)
Nearly half (47 percent) of EPA’s
R&D is performed in the agency’s own laboratories, while 10 percent
is performed by industrial firms (see Figure 2). 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.
North Carolina
and Ohio are the largest
recipients of EPA’s R&D dollars (see Figure 3). Research
Triangle Park
in North Carolina is home
to EPA’s largest laboratory as well as NIH’s
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) which receives
Superfund money to perform environmental health R&D. Cincinnati
is home to several EPA laboratories, including the National Homeland
Security Research Center (NHSRC) which was recently designated as a
permanent laboratory focusing on topics such as building decontamination
and drinking water security related to homeland security.
Outlook
The omnibus bill’s
cuts to the EPA budget were signed into law on December 8, bringing
to a close a disappointing budget season for EPA.
(This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on the FY 2005 congressional appropriations
process. This analysis includes information on R&D in final appropriations
for the Environmental Protection Agency. The complete series of AAAS
R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses of R&D
by agency in FY 2005 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2005 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.)
- December 8, 2004
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
