Highlights
- The House has drafted a budget bill that would cut Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) R&D by 4.3 percent or $27 million to $589 million
in FY 2005 (see Table).
- The extramural Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program would see its
budget restored to the FY 2004 level of $100 million instead of
the requested cut of one-third.
- EPA’s total budget would fall 7.3 percent down to $7.8 billion in the
House plan, with particularly steep cuts to State and Tribal Assistance
Grants and the Science and Technology program.
EPA R&D in FY 2005 House Appropriations
On July
22, the House Appropriations Committee drafted its version of an FY
2005 VA/HUD appropriations bill that would cut funding for Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in FY 2005. The House bill would provide EPA
with a total budget of $7.8 billion in FY 2005, $613 million or 7.3
percent less than this year. EPA’s R&D funding would decline 4.3
percent down to $589 million, slightly above 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.)
The House
FY 2005 VA-HUD bill would provide $93 billion for discretionary programs,
almost $1 billion more than the President’s request and $2 billion more
than this year’s funding level. The bill funds science agencies including
the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), EPA, and non-R&D programs for veterans and housing.
Although the overall bill total would increase, the House would devote
all the additional funds and then some to veterans and housing programs,
complaining that the Administration request significantly underfunds
these needs. The House is constrained from adding even more funds to
the VA-HUD bill because both the House and Senate are working with a
total of $822 billion for all discretionary programs in FY 2005 that
is $1 billion lower than the President’s request, necessitating difficult
choices in funding priorities.
EPA’s R&D, mostly funded in the Science and Technology account, would total $589 million in the FY
2005 House plan, a cut of $27 million or 4.3 percent (see Table).
The FY 2004 omnibus budget bill contained 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 total of $56 million in R&D earmarks (AAAS estimates).
The FY 2005 request would have eliminated these earmarks, for a slight
net increase in FY 2005 for EPA’s core R&D programs. The House,
faced with tight budgetary constraints, would fund only three R&D
earmarks totaling $11 million while boosting R&D funding for core
R&D programs.
R&D in the S&T account would fall by 1.6 percent to $552 million
in FY 2005, but would actually increase slightly if earmarks are not
counted. The lack of earmarks would free up money for some modest
program increases, such as particulate matter research from $58 million
this year to $59 million next year, and computational toxicology ($9
million this year to $13 million next year). Most EPA research areas
would see flat or slightly increasing funding, including water quality
research (flat at $45 million) and drinking water research (up slightly
to $45 million).
EPA’s funding of competitively awarded extramural research would bounce
back from steep requested cuts. EPA’s Science to Achieve Results
(STAR) program of extramural research grants would receive $100 million,
the same funding level as this year and the previous three years. EPA
had requested a one-third cut to $65 million, which would have required
the elimination of STAR grants in four areas. The House would also provide
$9.7 million for the STAR Fellowship Program, the same as this year
and similar appropriations in previous years, in contrast to a sharp
requested cut. This program encourages science and engineering graduate
students to study environmental science fields that could be of use
to EPA’s mission.
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 House-proposed
cut to EPA’s R&D mirrors the House’s cuts to the overall FY 2005
budget by 7.3 percent down to $7.8 billion, a loss of $613 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 the House would follow tradition by adding to the request,
bringing funding to $3.4 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,
the House would be less generous with an appropriation of $2.2 billion,
below both the request and FY 2004. The House would also trim the Superfund
program down to $1.3 billion in contrast to a requested increase to
$1.4 billion.
Figure 1. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-size PDF version of the
chart)
Outlook for EPA R&D
EPA’s R&D support
has been declining slowly for the past few years after steady growth
in the late 1990s. EPA’s R&D budget declined sharply after FY 1994
and bottomed out in FY 1996 (see Figure 1). In subsequent years, EPA’s
R&D grew until FY 1999. EPA R&D declined again in FY 2000, and
has mostly just kept pace with inflation since then. EPA R&D has
essentially stayed at $600 million in today’s dollars for more than
a decade, but the FY 2005 House appropriation and request would both
represent a steep decline from recent years.
Even the flat funding of recent years may look good compared with what
lies in store. With Congress and the President apparently committed
to reducing the budget deficit in half within the next five years primarily
through holding down domestic spending, the consequences for EPA are
becoming clearer. The FY 2005 budget contains preliminary projections
for the EPA budget out to FY 2009. In
FY 2006, EPA R&D could fall even further to $560 million, and
end up well below this year’s funding level at $569 million by FY 2009.
After adjusting for expected
inflation, the five-year Bush budget would leave EPA’s R&D funding
15 percent below this year’s
funding level in 2009. The House VA-HUD bill would keep the EPA budget
in line with these projections. (For more on the five-year projections
for federal R&D, see the April 22 (revised
May 7) AAAS Analysis of the Outyear Projections for R&D in the FY
2005 Budget.)
Next Steps
The House VA-HUD
bill’s proposed cuts to NSF, NASA, and EPA look so steep, especially
in an election year, that the bill may be rejected by the full House.
If that looks likely, the House leadership may prevent the bill from
reaching the House floor in September. The Senate, facing the same fiscal
constraints, may not draft its VA-HUD bill at all. Thus, the bill is
almost certain to be included in a year-end omnibus appropriations bill.
There is already talk that funding for NSF and NASA (but not EPA) will
have to be boosted through the infusion of additional funds in a year-end
budget deal. Where the additional funding might come from, however,
is uncertain, and it is highly likely that these House-proposed funding
levels for EPA could eventually prevail in the final FY 2005 appropriations
package.
(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 House 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.)
- July 26, 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
