Highlights
- The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) receives $936 million for its total budget in
FY 2005, a 0.2 percent cut. Its R&D funding declines 0.3 percent
to $545 million (see Table).
- Congress reversed many of the Bush Administration’s proposed cuts to geology
and water research programs, but could not bring funding above the FY
2004 level.
- Total Interior
R&D falls 0.5 percent to $672 million.
Final FY 2005 Appropriations for USGS R&D
On November 20,
Congress came to an agreement on an FY 2005 omnibus appropriations bill
(HR 4818), which incorporates the final version of the FY 2005 Interior
appropriations bill. President Bush signed the bill into law on December
8. The omnibus bill keeps funding for domestic programs flat in FY 2005;
the Interior bill does worse than the average, especially after factoring
in a 0.80 percent across-the-board cut for most domestic programs and
another cut just for Interior bill programs. (All figures in this analysis
reflect the across-the-board cuts.) The omnibus
bill provides $672 million for Interior R&D in FY 2005, a cut
of $3 million or 0.5 percent below FY 2004. Although the President’s
FY 2005 request would have cut R&D in Interior’s U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) by $22 million or 4.0 percent, Congress restored $20 million
in funding to lessen the cut to $2 million or 0.3 percent (see Table).
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the primary sponsor of R&D in
Interior. 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.
Nearly 90 percent 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. Congress
came to an agreement on $936 million for the total USGS budget in FY
2005, $16 million more than the request but $2 million or 0.2 percent
less than FY 2004 (see Table). USGS was
slated for a slight increase in the omnibus bill, but then Congress
added across-the-board cuts to fit the bill under tight budget targets.
R&D
accounts for nearly two-thirds of the USGS budget, with the remainder
going to non-R&D activities such as environmental data collection,
mapping, and natural hazards reduction. In a repeat of previous years,
the Bush Administration requested a cut of 4.0 percent for USGS R&D,
but Congress allocated a slight increase in the original omnibus bill.
But the across-the-board cuts bring USGS R&D down to $545 million,
slightly below ($2 million) last year. (For details of the President's
request for Interior R&D, please see Chapter
13 of AAAS Report XXIX: R&D
FY 2005). The request proposed to cut funding for R&D in
three USGS divisions (Geology, Water Resources, and Biological Research)
and keep funding flat in the remaining division (Mapping). Congress
found enough money to moderate the proposed cuts and to bring biological
research above last year’s funding.
Funding for nearly
every USGS R&D program stays flat or declines in FY 2005, even after
the reversal of proposed cuts. Despite an additional $8 million over
the request, R&D in the Water Resources Division (WRD) still declines
slightly to $128 million. Within WRD, funding for the Toxic Substances
Hydrology Program stays even at $15 million. 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.
Congress once again rejected the Administration’s proposal to eliminate
the water resources research institutes program, but the $6.5 million
FY 2005 funding level is the same as last year. The final appropriation
of $16 million for the hydrologic research and development program is
more than the request, but well below $17.1 million for last year. Congress
funds the National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) at $62 million,
down slightly from last year. 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 Biological Resource Division (BRD) receives $176 million in FY 2005,
a slight gain of $1 million.
R&D
in the Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes Division falls to
$208 million, an improvement from a proposed $10 million cut falling
disproportionately on the mineral resources R&D program. Congress
restored funding for mineral resources R&D and also inserted strong
language into the committee report calling mineral resources research
a core responsibility of USGS. Funding for R&D on earthquakes, volcanoes,
landslides, geologic mapping, geology, and earth surface dynamics stays
flat or declines slightly. Mapping and Geography R&D stays even
with last year at $33 million.
Figure
1. (click on
the image for PDF)
Other Interior Agencies
Although USGS
is the primary science agency in Interior, four other Interior bureaus
also fund R&D (see Table). These include funds for minerals and
mining research in the Minerals and Management Service (MMS), wildfire
prevention research in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), water resources
research in the Bureau of Reclamation, and R&D for the Florida Everglades
restoration project in the National Park Service. Congress mostly agreed
to the President’s request for these R&D programs.
Impacts of the FY 2005 Interior Budget
The FY 2005 cut
keeps Interior R&D at roughly the same R&D budget in constant
dollars for the sixth year in a row (see Figure 1). 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 former National
Biological Service into USGS in the mid-1990s. Since then, Interior
R&D has been mostly flat, with small increases at about the rate
of inflation in recent years after hitting bottom in FY 1999.
Figure
2. (click on
the image for PDF)
Interior support for research has
followed trends in Interior R&D, because nearly all of
Interior’s R&D portfolio is research with only a small amount for
development. A third of Interior’s research goes to the life sciences,
primarily from the BRD. Two-thirds of Interior research goes to the earth
sciences. As shown in Figure 2, the most prominent drop in Interior support is
in 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 in the early 1990s, but cuts in subsequent
years have eroded support. Interior support for environmental sciences research
has declined steadily as the USGS budget has lost purchasing power.
- December 8, 2004
(This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates
on FY 2005 congressional appropriations. 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.)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
