AAAS R&D Funding Update on EPA R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations -

EPA R&D Falls in Final 2008 Appropriations

Go to: -Table. EPAR&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations PDF version of this document Main R&D in the FY 2008 Budget Page Supplemental Materials: "EPA R&D Edges Up in Senate Plan," AAAS R&D Funding Update on EPA R&D in FY 2008 Senate Appropriations "EPA R&D Rebounds in House with $50 Mil. Climate Change Commission," AAAS R&D Funding Update on EPA R&D in FY 2008 House Appropriations "EPA R&D Falls Again in 2008 Proposal," AAAS R&D Funding Update on R&D in the FY 2008 EPA Budget AAAS Analysis of R&D in the FY 2008 Budget

Highlights - The 2008 omnibus bill provides the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with $542 million for its R&D programs in 2008, down $18 million or 3.2 percent from 2007 (see Table). Increases in earlier appropriations bills evaporated in negotiations over the final bill.  - Congress ended up deleting $50 million in new money in the House’s EPA appropriation for a proposed climate change commission to prioritize climate change adaptation and mitigation research.  - The total EPA budget would fall 3.3 percent to $7.5 billion, instead of an even steeper requested cut.   EPA R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations  On December 26, President Bush signed into law the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2764) that had cleared Congress a week earlier, bringing the 2008 appropriations process to a close. The omnibus bill included a final version of the FY 2008 Interior appropriations bill providing funding for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other natural resources and environment programs. The omnibus bill would go along with the President’s proposal to reduce funding for domestic programs overall instead of the increases Congress had hoped for in earlier versions of the Interior bill. As a result, EPA funding would fall in 2008.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the primary regulatory agency for the U.S. environment, funds a broad portfolio of R&D to meet the science and technology needs of its regulatory and enforcement responsibilities. The FY 2008 appropriation would cut EPA R&D funding by $18 million or 3.2 percent to $542 million (see Table). $5 million of the congressional total would be new funding for earmarks, leaving non-earmarked R&D funding down by $23 million.  Congress abandoned an earlier House proposal to dramatically increase EPA R&D with a surprising $50 million in new money for climate change adaptation and mitigation R&D. The House appropriation proposed an unusually structured multi-agency commission to determine federal climate change adaptation and mitigation research priorities, gave the commission $50 million in a new EPA account to do its work, and then proposed to allow the commission to distribute funding to multiple federal agencies (including but not limited to EPA) to fund research aligned with its recommendations. Congress also abandoned a Senate proposal for a new $14 million account within S&T specifically to fund competitively awarded extramural research, primarily at universities.  Most of EPA’s R&D is managed by its Office of Research and Development (ORD), which funds both R&D at EPA laboratories around the country and external R&D, mostly at universities. Nearly all of EPA’s R&D comes from the Science and Technology (S&T) budget account, which would total $760 million in the 2008 final appropriation, up 3.6 percent from the 2007 funding level primarily because of transfers into the account. R&D makes up most but not all of the S&T account. Subtracting non-R&D items such as critical infrastructure protection, operating overhead costs, and clean air standards and certification activities leaves an R&D portfolio of $515 million from S&T, down 2.6 percent (see Table). ORD also receives R&D funding from the Superfund program (down $4 million to $26 million) for hazardous wastes research, and small amounts of funding from other EPA accounts.  Clean air research would increase in 2008 to $99 million (up 5.5 percent), due to big increases in climate change research (see Table). Language accompanying the omnibus bill urges EPA to fund research in support of the development of potential greenhouse gas regulations. In other EPA research areas, human health and ecosystems research, the largest part of the ORD portfolio, would fall to $223 million, while clean water research would remain flat at $104 million. EPA R&D funding for sustainability and homeland security would fall, but there would be $5 million for congressional projects after a moratorium on earmarking in 2007; the earmarked funds would go to four multi-state research consortia.  In 2006, EPA R&D earmarks totaled $33 million.   Figure 1. (click on the image for PDF) The total EPA budget would be $7.5 billion, a cut of $259 million or 3.3 percent from 2007 and dramatically less than earlier House and Senate appropriations bills in the 2008 season. EPA R&D funding would fall in 2008 to its lowest level in more than two decades.  EPA’s R&D support has been declining steadily for the past few years after steady growth in the late 1990s (see Figure 1). EPA R&D fell in FY 2000, and has eroded in inflation-adjusted dollars since then except for a one-time boost in FY 2004 for homeland security-related R&D.  (This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2008 congressional appropriations. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses of R&D in FY 2008 appropriations, is available on the AAAS R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd) in the “FY 2008 R&D” or the “What’s New” sections.) - January 3, 2008 AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program 1200 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005 (202) 326-6607 AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd

Table. Environmental Protection Agency
House-Senate Conference on R&D in the FY 2008 Budget
(budget authority in millions of dollars)
			House-Senate Conference
	FY 2007	FY 2008	FY 2008	Chg. from Request		Chg. from FY 2007
	Estimate	Request	CONF.	Amount	Percent	Amount	Percent
EPA R&D:
Science and Technology 1	529	512	515	3	0.6%	-14	-2.6%
Congressional Projects	0	0	5	5	- -	5	- -
Clean Air	94	98	99	2	1.5%	5	5.5%
Clean Water	105	105	104	-1	-0.6%	-1	-0.9%
Human Health & Ecosystems	229	218	223	6	2.6%	-6	-2.7%
Land Protection	10	11	11	0	-1.6%	0	1.5%
Sustainability	26	22	22	0	-1.6%	-4	-14.7%
Pesticides and Toxics	26	25	24	0	-1.6%	-2	-6.0%
Homeland Security	38	34	26	-8	-23.7%	-12	-31.6%
Commission on Climate Change 2/	0	0	0	0	- -	0	- -
Superfund	30	26	26	0	-1.5%	-4	-14.7%
Leaking Underground Storage Tanks	1	1	1	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
Oil Spill Response	1	1	1	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
	_______	_______	_______	_______		_______	_______
Total EPA R&D	561	540	542	3	0.5%	-18	-3.2%
EPA Budget (includes non-R&D components):
Science and Technology 1/	733	755	760	6	0.7%	27	3.6%
Commission on Climate Change 2/	0	0	0	0	- -	0	- -
Environ.  Progs. and Management	2,358	2,298	2,328	30	1.3%	-30	-1.3%
Superfund	1,255	1,245	1,254	9	0.7%	-1	-0.1%
State and Tribal Assistance Grants	3,185	2,725	2,926	202	7.4%	-259	-8.1%
Buildings and Facilities	40	35	34	-1	-1.6%	-5	-13.5%
Leaking Underground Storage Tanks	100	92	106	14	14.7%	6	5.6%
Oil Spill Response	16	17	17	0	-1.3%	1	8.4%
Inspector General	37	38	41	3	8.1%	4	10.6%
	_______	_______	_______	_______		_______	_______
Total EPA Budget	7,725	7,204	7,466	262	3.6%	-259	-3.3%
AAAS estimates based on FY 2008 appropriations bills.  Includes conduct of R&D and R&D facilities.
FY 2007 and FY 2008 request figures based on OMB R&D data and supplemental agency budget data.
Figures are rounded to the nearest million. Changes calculated from unrounded figures.
FY 2008 Conf. figures adjusted to reflect across-the-board reductions in the 2008 omnibus appropriations bill.
1/ Does not include transfers from Superfund (see Superfund line).
2/ FY 2008 House Interior-Environment bill proposed a new climate change commission to prioritize and fund
climate change adaptation and mitigation research. Not included in FY 2008 omnibus bill.
December 17, 2007 - AAAS estimates of House-Senate Conference appropriations.
These appropriations may be rejected by the House or Senate, and may be vetoed by the President.