|
Go to: Table.
NASA R&D in FY 2000 House-Senate Conference
PDF version of this document
Related sites:
AAAS R&D Funding Update September 21- Senate
Provides Request for NASA (Senate appropriations for FY 2000
NASA)
AAAS R&D Funding Update August 6 -
House Approves $1 Billion Cut in NASA Budget, Large
Cuts in Space Science and Earth Science (House appropriations for
FY 2000 NASA)
AAAS Report XXIV: R&D FY 2000
President's Request for FY 2000
Chapter 11:
NASA R&D in the FY 2000 Budget
- Lori A. Staley, AIAA
|
(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.)
(revisions in [ ] )
[On October 20, President Clinton signed into law an
FY 2000 VA-HUD appropriations bill (HR 2684) that gives $13.7 billion
to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).] The final
bill closely follows the Administration request and the Senate version
of the bill, and rejects the steep cuts to NASA's budget proposed in
the House version. Unlike the House bill, which would have imposed a
$1 billion cut on NASA, the final bill provides slightly more than
the request for a total of $13.7 billion for NASA's budget, just $12
million or 0.1 percent less than FY 1999. The request was for $13.6
billion. Total NASA R&D increases slightly by 1.0 percent
to $9.8 billion (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. Thanks to several accounting maneuvers, including billions
of dollars in rescissions of unspent housing funds, designations of
emergency spending for disaster relief, and advance appropriations of
FY 2001 funds, the final VA-HUD bill manages to stay within tight budget
totals while still providing increases for priority programs.
Within the $70 billion discretionary total for the
final VA-HUD bill, padded with an extra $10 billion in additional funds
from accounting maneuvers, Congress provides NASA with $74 million more
than it had requested, for a total NASA budget of $13.7 billion, just
$12 million or 0.1 percent less than FY 1999. NASA's R&D funding,
which excludes the Space Shuttle program and its mission support costs,
totals $9.8 billion in FY 2000, an increase of $100 million or 1.0 percent
(see Table).
The Science, Aeronautics, and Technology (SAT),
which funds nearly all of NASA's R&D not related to the Space Station,
receives $5.6 billion, a reduction of 0.8 percent from FY 1999 but $182
million or 3.4 percent more than the request. The final appropriation
is close to the Senate-proposed appropriation, in contrast to a proposed
12 percent cut in the House bill. The final bill provides $2.2 billion
for Space Science, 3.1 percent more than FY 1999. Congress reduces
funding for future Discovery and Explorer missions, which could result
in fewer spacecraft launches over the next few years than NASA had planned,
and also reduces funding for Mars missions in response to the recent
loss of a Mars spacecraft. The bill instructs NASA to prepare a detailed
report on the causes of the Mars mission's failure. There are increases
for several congressionally designated projects and a $23 million increase
for costs associated with the next servicing mission of the Hubble Space
Telescope.
The Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications
(LMSA) account within SAT receives a $276 million appropriation,
an increase of 4.7 percent. The increase is due to congressionally designated
projects. The House-proposed bill sharply criticized NASA for scheduling
only one life and microgravity sciences shuttle mission in the next
few years. The final bill retains the House language instructing NASA
to add another dedicated science mission by 2001, and provides science
funds in LMSA and shuttle funds in Human Space Flight for that purpose.
Earth Science receives $1.4 billion, slightly less than the request
but 2.4 percent or $33 million more than FY 1999. There are more than
a dozen congressionally designated projects, requiring offsetting cuts
in mission reserves and other regular Earth Science accounts. Although
the House proposed to terminate the Triana program, the final bill keeps
it alive but directs NASA to suspend all work until the National Academy
of Sciences completes an evaluation of the mission.
In the sharpest departure from NASA's priorities, Congress
adds $147 million to the request for Aero-Space Technology, leaving
the program with $1.2 billion, which is still 13.9 percent less than
FY 1999. Although much of the increase over the request is for congressionally
designated projects, the final bill also contains add-ons for R&D
in ultra-efficient engine technologies, aircraft noise reduction, flight
control, and space launch technologies. Congress also adds $41 million
to the request for Academic Programs, resulting in a budget of
$141 million, slightly more than last year. The supplement to the request
is entirely for 16 congressionally designated projects.
The final VA-HUD bill provides $2.3 billion for continued
development and construction of the International Space Station,
$79 million or 3.5 percent more than FY 1999 but $152 million less than
NASA's request, partly because of a $100 million reduction from the
request for development of a crew return vehicle. Although the Senate
appropriated Space Station funds in a separate account to prevent NASA
from siphoning funds from other Human Space Flight programs to cover
cost overruns in the Station, the final bill preserves the existing
Human Space Flight account structure. The non-R&D Space Shuttle
program, the other major program within Human Space Flight, receives
$3.0 billion, slightly more than its current funding. The appropriation
includes $40 million for an additional space shuttle science mission
by 2001.
Figure 1.
NASA's R&D funding has declined in the last few
years after peaking in FY 1994, and has been stagnant throughout the
1990s. NASA R&D increased dramatically from FY 1986 to FY 1994 because
of development of a replacement for the Space Shuttle Challenger, development
of the International Space Station, and an expansion of NASA's earth
science activities. Growth in the NASA budget stopped in the mid-1990s,
and has declined in inflation-adjusted terms as a result of budget cuts
and the agency's efforts to streamline its operations and produce cheaper
space missions. The R&D appropriation for FY 2000 represents a 1
percent increase, less than the 2 percent expected inflation rate, so
once again NASA's R&D declines in real terms.
Figure 2.
Although much of NASA's R&D funds development rather
than research for science missions such as the Space Station, NASA is
also an important source of federal support for basic and applied research.
Figure 2 shows the division of NASA's research portfolio (slightly less
than half of NASA's R&D budget) by science and engineering discipline.
Engineering research makes up the largest part of the portfolio. NASA
funds approximately a third of total federal support for engineering
research, and is the second largest agency sponsor behind the Department
of Defense. NASA is the leading federal sponsor of the environmental
sciences (oceanography, atmospheric sciences, geological sciences).
The environmental sciences are about a quarter of NASA's portfolio,
but NASA accounts for nearly 40 percent of total federal support for
environmental sciences research. NASA also invests heavily in the physical
sciences (astronomy, chemistry, and physics). Approximately two-thirds
of NASA's physical sciences funding goes to astronomy, and most of the
remaining third goes to physics. NASA is the second largest federal
sponsor of physical sciences behind the Department of Energy, and is
the leading sponsor of astronomy research.
NASA's R&D funding is thus important to the overall
health of engineering, physical sciences, and environmental sciences,
but recent trends in NASA's budget are mixed for these disciplines.
Figure 3 shows that NASA research, in inflation-adjusted terms, is on
a slight upward trend within the flat total R&D budget, but NASA's
support for engineering research has been flat to declining (except
for a possible statistical error in FY 1998), as has NASA's support
for physical sciences research. Funding for environmental sciences research
has been increasing, mostly because of NASA's and the Clinton Administration's
strong support for the Mission to Planet Earth program, now the Earth
Science program. Much of the remaining increase in total NASA research
in the 1990s is due to a dramatic expansion of support for the life
sciences, though the total is still a small fraction both of total NASA
research and total federal support for life sciences.
Figure 3.
[President Clinton signed the VA-HUD bill into law
on October 20.] Although these funding levels would be final under normal
circumstances, Congress may still re-open completed FY 2000 appropriations
if it runs into trouble passing the remaining appropriations bills.
Congress is seriously considering enacting across-the-board cuts in
discretionary spending to get all FY 2000 appropriations under budget
targets. These cuts could affect NASA and other agencies in the VA-HUD
bill even after the bill becomes law.
- October 15, 1999 (revised October 21)
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
|
