(The text in this analysis
updates a July 10 analysis of R&D in Senate
appropriations for the Department of the Interior with information
on House appropriations)
Just before a week-long
Fourth of July recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved
the first of its 13 appropriations bills. The FY 2003 Interior appropriations
bill (S 2708), which provides funding for R&D in the Department
of the Interior, goes to the Senate floor this
week or next week. The House drafted its version of the bill July 9
(HR 5093); its version is expected to go to the House floor next week.
The Senate bill would provide
$684 million for Interior R&D, an increase of 3.7 percent or
$24 million over FY 2002. The
House would provide a similar $681 million, for a 3.1 percent increase.
Although the President’s FY 2003 request would have cut R&D in Interior’s
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) by 7 percent, both the Hosue
and Senate would restore funding to the proposed cuts; the Senate would
give USGS a slight increase of 2.6 percent over FY 2002 for its R&D
programs, while the House would boost USGS R&D by 2.0 percent. Both
the House and Senate would also block the proposed elimination and transfer
(to the National Science Foundation (NSF)) of a toxic hydrology program.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the primary sponsor of R&D in
Interior. The Senate would provide $927 million for its total budget
in FY 2003, $59 million more than the request. The House would provide
slightly more, for a total of $928 million. The Administration requested
a $47 million cut in USGS from the FY 2002 funding level; the Senate
and House appropriations would restore the cuts (see Table).
R&D accounts for nearly
two-thirds of the USGS budget. The Bush Administration requested only
$542 million for USGS R&D, a proposed cut of 7.0 percent from FY
2002, but the Senate would provide $598 million, a 2.6 percent increase
while the House would provide $595 million, a 2.0 percent increase (For
details of the President's request for Interior R&D, please see
Chapter 12 of AAAS Report XXVII: R&D FY 2003).
The request proposed to
cut funding for R&D in all four USGS divisions, but hardest hit
would have been programs in Water Resources (down a proposed 18.5 percent);
last year’s FY 2002 request proposed similarly steep cuts, but Congress
rebuffed these proposals. The FY 2002 and 2003 budgets explained that
USGS performs a significant amount of research that primarily benefits
other federal agencies, states, and local governments; the budget proposed
to reduce funding for these programs, though without corresponding increases
in other agencies’ budgets.
As they did last year, both
the House and the Senate would keep funding for most water resources
programs at or above the FY 2002 funding level. The Senate would provide
$142 million for R&D in the Water Resources Division (up $2 million
or 1.6 percent), $28 million more than the request; the House would
provide a nearly identical $143 million. The request proposed to eliminate
the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program in USGS and reconstitute it in
a different and reduced form within NSF, but both the House and the
Senate would provide $14 million within USGS, up slightly from FY 2002.
The program is a collaborative effort of USGS scientists, university
and private-sector researchers, and state, local, and other federal
agency scientists to conduct long-term research on water resource contamination
in surface and groundwater environments. The request also proposed to
eliminate the $6 million water resources research institutes program,
but both the House and the Senate would keep funding at the FY 2002
level. This program funds 54 state water research
institutes, with every federal dollar matched by two state and other
non-federal dollars.
The request also proposed
to cut the National Water Quality Assessment Program
(NAWQA) to $57 million from $63 million. NAWQA is charged with monitoring
the nation’s water quality, and its data are
used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many state regulatory
agencies. The Senate and the House would instead provide a slight increase
to $64 million.
The Senate would provide
$172 million for the USGS Biological
Resource Division (BRD), $6 million more than FY 2002, similar to
the House’s $170 million 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. USGS is also a leading sponsor of water resources research
and biological research. 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.
Although USGS is the primary
science agency in Interior, three other Interior bureaus also fund R&D
(see Table). These agencies would mostly
receive the requested amounts for R&D in both the House and Senate
bills, including funds for minerals and mining research in the Minerals
and Management Service, and wildfire prevention research in the Bureau
of Land Management.
The House and Senate Interior
bills now move to the House and Senate floors, respectively, where each
version may be amended. After expected House and Senate approvals of
the respective versions, the bill heads to House-Senate conference;
because of the strikingly similar USGS appropriations in the bills so
far, the final USGS budget is likely to change little from either version.
- July 12, 2002
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/rd
(new URL)
