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;
details of R&D in the House bill will be available shortly. The
Senate bill would provide $684
million for Interior R&D, an increase of 3.7 percent or $24
million over FY 2002. Although the President’s FY 2003 request would
have cut R&D in Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) by 7 percent,
the Senate would restore funding to the proposed cuts, and would give
USGS a slight increase of 2.6 percent over FY 2002 for its R&D programs.
The Senate would also block the proposed elimination and transfer (to
the National Science Foundation (NSF)) of a toxic hydrology program.
The Senate FY 2003 Interior
bill totals $19.3 billion, above the request of $18.9 billion. In addition
to the Department of the Interior, the bill also funds the Forest Service
(part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), several programs in the
Department of Energy (DOE), the Smithsonian Institution, the National
Endowment for the Arts, and other small agencies. Many programs, including
DOE R&D and USGS, would receive more money than the Bush Administration
request.
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 Administration requested
a $47 million cut in USGS from the FY 2002 funding level; the Senate
appropriation would restore the cuts and provide a $13 million or 1.4
percent increase (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
(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 it did last year, 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 request proposed to eliminate
the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program in USGS and reconstitute it in
a different and reduced form within NSF, but 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 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 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.
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 Interior bill now moves
to the Senate floor, where it may be amended. After expected Senate
approval and House approval of its version, the bill heads to House-Senate
conference.
- July 8, 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)
