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Go to: Table.
Interior R&D in FY 2000 House-Senate Conference
PDF version of this document
Related sites:
AAAS R&D Funding Update July 9 - USGS
R&D Receives Level Funding from House (House appropriations for FY
2000 Interior R&D)
AAAS R&D Funding Update June 29 -
USGS R&D Holds Steady in Senate Plan (Senate
appropriations for FY 2000 Interior R&D)
AAAS Report XXIV: R&D FY 2000
President's Request for FY 2000
Chapter 13:
R&D in Selected Agencies
- Kei Koizumi, AAAS
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(The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates,
including continually updated analyses of R&D by agency in FY 2000
appropriations, is available on the AAAS R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/R&D)
in the "FY 2000 R&D" or the "What's
New" sections.)
This week, Congress is scheduled to give final approval
to an FY 2000 Interior appropriations bill (HR 2466) that gives a slight
increase to R&D in the Department of the Interior. President Clinton
has threatened to veto it, however, because of inadequate funding for
some Interior programs and because of the addition of several environment-related
legislative provisions. The Interior bill provides $569 million for
Interior R&D, just $2 million or 0.3 percent above the FY 1999 funding
level (see Table).
Although FY 2000 started on October 1, Congress is
still struggling to draft the 13 appropriations bills within discretionary
spending caps that are forcing sharp cuts to domestic discretionary
programs. The discretionary spending caps, enacted in 1997, require
FY 2000 discretionary spending to be nearly $20 billion below FY 1999
funding levels. The Interior bill totals $14.5 billion, which is barely
$200 million above last year's funding level, leaving little room for
spending increases. In addition to the Department of the Interior, the
bill also funds the Forest Service, several programs in the Department
of Energy, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the
Arts, and other small agencies.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the primary
sponsor of R&D in Interior. Its total FY 2000 appropriation is $824
million, $15 million less than the request but $26 million or 3.3 percent
above FY 1999 (see Table). Nearly two-thirds
of the USGS budget is for R&D activities, for a total of $499 million
(up 0.3 percent). Although Interior proposed a major budget restructuring
in the FY 2000 request, including the creation of an Integrated Science
account for multi-disciplinary projects and integrated ecosystem studies,
the final Interior bill funds USGS under the old account structure and
allows these studies and projects to be funded through the old accounts.
The Interior bill permits two other proposed accounts, Science Support
and Facilities, to be created. Because of the transitions between the
old account structure, the proposed new account structure, and the new
approved account structure, the 0.3 percent estimated increase to USGS
R&D may actually be larger, depending on how USGS allocates its
costs based on the appropriation.
USGS is one of the leading federal sponsors of earth
sciences research, along with the Department of Energy, the National
Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Within the earth sciences, USGS is particularly important in geological
hazards research, including research on earthquakes and volcanoes. The
earth sciences program in USGS receives a 6.8 percent increase over
the comparable amount in FY 1999. USGS is also a leading sponsor of
water resources research, which receives a 3.7 percent increase, and
biological research, which increases to $138 million. Most of this research
is conducted within Interior labs to address the science needs of Interior's
other agencies, such as the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau
of Land Management.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of Interior's research
portfolio (excluding development and R&D facilities) by discipline,
most of it funded by USGS. USGS work in earth sciences and water resources
falls under the environmental sciences category, which accounts for
a majority of Interior's R&D. Biological research in USGS is classified
under life sciences, which accounts for a quarter of the Interior portfolio.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
The FY 2000 increase to Interior R&D becomes a
cut after adjusting for inflation. As shown in Figure 2, Interior R&D
has declined sharply since FY 1994, primarily because of the elimination
of the Bureau of Mines in FY 1996 and the merging of the National Biological
Service into USGS, but also because of a gradual erosion in purchasing
power due to several years of budget cuts in the mid-1990s. The FY 2000
funding level is more than a third below the peak FY 1994 funding level.
Figure 3.
As a result of these cuts, Interior support for research
has also declined and will continue to decline in FY 2000. As shown
in Figure 3, Interior support of research has followed trends in total
Interior R&D and declined since FY 1994 in real terms. The most
prominent drop is engineering research, which was almost entirely eliminated
with the closure of the Bureau of Mines. Life sciences research increased
with the creation of the National Biological Service, but small cuts
in subsequent years has eroded support. Interior support for environmental
sciences research has fared better than other disciplines, but the long-term
trend is downward as inflation eats away at purchasing power.
The Interior bill has emerged from House-Senate conference
but it is uncertain whether the House and the Senate will give final
approval. Even if it clears Congress, President Clinton has threatened
to veto it, however, because of inadequate funding for some Interior
programs and because of the addition of several environment-related
legislative provisions. If it is vetoed, the bill becomes a likely candidate
to be rolled into an omnibus appropriations bill, and it is highly uncertain
whether funding levels for its programs will stay the same. Congress
may reallocate funds within the bill to satisfy the President's demands,
and in addition Congress is seriously considering enacting across-the-board
cuts in discretionary spending to get all appropriations under budget
targets.
- October 21, 1999
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/R&D
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