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Dept. of the Interior R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations PDF
version of this document Main
R&D in the FY 2008 Budget Page
Supplemental
Materials: "Senate Increases
USGS R&D," AAAS R&D Funding Update on Interior R&D in FY
2008 Senate Appropriations "USGS
R&D Climbs in House Plan," AAAS R&D Funding Update on Interior
R&D in FY 2008 House Appropriations "USGS
R&D Falls Again in 2008 Proposal," AAAS R&D Funding Update on
R&D in the FY 2008 Interior Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2008 Budget -
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R&D in Interior’s lead science agency, the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), would increase 3.4 percent or $19 million to $583 million
in the final 2008 appropriation, well above a requested cut (see Table).
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Congress once again restores funding to requested cuts in mineral resources
R&D and water R&D programs, and also adds $7 million in new money for
USGS climate change research. -
R&D in the Department of the Interior would gain 4.2 percent to $661 million
in 2008, reversing a downward trend in Interior R&D funding for six of the
last seven years. USGS 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
Department of the Interior manages most of the publicly owned lands in the United
States, from the national park system to Indian
lands to publicly owned mines. R&D to support Interior’s land management responsibilities
totals $661 million in FY 2008 (up 4.2 percent), in contrast to a requested cut
(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. 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.
The President’s budget proposed $975 million for the earth sciences-oriented USGS
budget, a cut of $13 million from the 2007 level after adjusting for emergency
appropriations enacted at the end of May. But in the omnibus bill Congress approved
$1.0 billion for USGS, an $18 million increase (see Table).
USGS
R&D totals $583 million in the FY 2008 final appropriation, an increase of
$19 million or 3.4 percent instead of a requested cut (see Table).
Just over half of the USGS budget is devoted to R&D activities, with the remainder
going for science support, data gathering and dissemination, facilities operations,
mapping, and natural hazards reduction. R&D funding would increase in all
four USGS research divisions, and there would also be $7 million in new funding
for climate change research. The
Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes Division would see its R&D funding
increase 2.5 percent to $219 million instead of falling by 7 percent, in a repeat
of an annual ritual in which USGS proposes to cut the mineral resources program
nearly in half but both the House and Senate intervene to keep funding at current
levels. As in past years, Congress strongly disagrees with USGS’ rationale that
minerals research could be funded by the private sector, and reaffirms the federal
role in minerals research with restored funding of $52 million instead of the
$30 million request. In another earth sciences-related division, Geographic Research
would increase $1 million to $46 million. Water
Resources R&D would stay flat at $126 million instead of a requested cut.
USGS put forward its perennial proposal to eliminate federal funding for the water
resources research institutes for a savings of $5 million, but as in past years
Congress rejected the proposal and would preserve the federal role in these cooperatively
funded institutes, at a funding level of $6 million in 2008. The Cooperative Water
Program would be funded at $63 million; this program supports the collection of
basic hydrologic data, studies of specific water-resources problems, and hydrologic
research through USGS partnerships with state governments and other entities.
There would be a slight increase for the National Water Quality Assessment Program
(NAWQA) to $65 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. USGS biological research programs
would increase $4 million to $180 million. The
omnibus bill would follow the House’s lead in adding $7 million to the USGS budget
specifically for climate change research (see Table) for “vital research efforts
of Survey scientists related to various aspects of global climate change,” according
to report language accompanying the House Interior bill. Although details are
sketchy, the funds would presumably be distributed among the four USGS research
divisions. 
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
and other park-related projects in the National Park Service. R&D funding
for all four agencies would increase in 2008. Impacts of the FY 2008 Interior Budget Congressional
appropriators have signaled that environmental science will be a key priority,
especially in the area of climate change, and that they will try to reverse recent
budget trends. The FY 2008 increase for Interior R&D would be a small
break from recent trends, in which Interior R&D has declined in real terms
for six of the last seven years (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. After a large increase in FY 2000, Interior R&D has been
mostly flat since then, resulting in steady losses after adjusting for inflation.
84 percent of Interior’s R&D is performed in-house, with only 8 percent performed
at universities and colleges. Industries, state governments, and nonprofits combined
perform the remaining 8 percent of Interior R&D. Outlook
and Next Steps USGS
and its sister Interior agencies enter calendar year 2008 with their final FY
2008 budgets, just weeks before the early February release of the President’s
FY 2009 budget request. Although USGS did relatively well in the final 2008 omnibus
bill, the FY 2009 budget request will most likely contain cuts in USGS R&D
programs, which Congress will once again try to reverse in the 2009 appropriations
season. -
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
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