On July 25, as part of a
rush to draft all 13 FY 2003 appropriations bills before a month-long
August recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee drafted an FY 2003
VA-HUD appropriations bill (S. 2797) that would provide a substantial
increase for R&D in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). The Senate would provide NASA with a total budget of $15.2 billion
in FY 2003, $298 million or 2.0 percent more than FY 2002. This would
exceed the Administration’s request of $15.0 billion. In
the Senate plan, NASA’s R&D funding would rise 6.3 percent
for a total of $11.8 billion, including a 12.4 percent boost in the
key Science, Aeronautics and Technology (SAT) account to $9.0 billion
(see Table). The Senate would go along
with NASA’s request to shift money from the International Space Station
project to NASA’s other R&D programs, and would add $126 million
in congressionally designated projects and $105 million for a Pluto
mission.
The Senate FY 2003 VA-HUD
bill would provide $91 billion for discretionary programs. The bill
funds science agencies including NASA, the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and non-R&D programs for veterans and
housing. The President requested $93 billion for the bill’s programs,
but the Senate would rearrange priorities to give NASA $200 million
more than requested and would fund some priorities out of emergency
funds which do not count against the bill’s total. The House is not
expected to draft its version of the bill until September or later.
Two-thirds of the NASA budget,
which excludes the Space Shuttle program and its associated costs, is
classified as R&D. NASA’s
R&D would total $10.8 billion in the Senate plan, a substantial
$639 million or 6.3 percent above FY 2002, and $200 million above the
request. Because the Space Shuttle program and other non-R&D
programs would decline, the total NASA budget of $15.2 billion would
show a smaller increase (up 2.0 percent).
The troubled International Space Station is now projected to run $4.8 billion over
budget, and the Senate language accompanying the VA-HUD bill continues
to express dismay over NASA’s management of Station costs. Just to fit
into the expanded cost, the Station itself has been downsized to a new
‘core complete’ configuration that will allow for only three astronauts
at a time. The Senate would go along with NASA’s proposal to cut the
Space Station budget by $230 million or 13.3 percent over FY 2002, for
a total of $1.5 billion instead of current-year funding of $1.7 billion.
The Science, Aeronautics, and Technology (SAT) account, which funds nearly
all of NASA’s R&D not related to the Space Station, would receive
$9.0 billion, 12.4 percent or $997 million above the FY 2002 funding
level. This substantial increase would go primarily to the Space Science
and the Aero-Space Technology Programs.
Within SAT, Space Science would receive $3.5 billion, a 21.8 percent or $625 million
increase. NASA had requested most of the increase, but the Senate would
provide most of the request and then add some more funds. The largest
addition to the request would be $105
million for the Pluto-Kuiper Belt (PKB)
mission, to be used to develop a spacecraft for a scheduled launch date
of 2006 to Pluto. The FY 2003 request had proposed to eliminate this
mission and reorganize outer-planet exploration into a New Frontiers
program of competitively selected, cost-limited missions. The Senate
bill would reject the proposed elimination and would make the PKB mission
the first mission in New Horizons. The Senate bill instructs NASA to
continue making requests for PKB in future budgets. Among the adjustments
to the request are a $13 million reduction in proposed new funding for
nuclear technology programs, but that would still leave $113 million
in FY 2003 for initiatives to explore nuclear propulsion technologies
for future missions.
The Aero-Space Technology program would rise 12.2 percent or $307 million
in the Senate plan to $2.8 billion, nearly the same as the request.
The Advanced Space Transportation program would receive $849 million,
$30 million less than the request but nearly 50 percent above the FY
2002 funding level. Much of the increase would be due to a boost from
$467 million in FY 2002 to $729 million in FY 2003 for the Space Launch
Initiative, which funds research and development efforts for reusable
launch vehicle technology, toward the long-term goal of developing a
replacement for the Space Shuttle. Most other programs in this account
would receive the requested amounts, which would result in mostly declines
in NASA investments in aviation and commercial technology programs.
The Academic Programs appropriation of $203 million would be $25 million
less than the FY 2002 funding level, but $59 million above the request
because of 33 congressionally designated projects totaling $53.4 million,
many of them funded in FY 2002 but deleted in the FY 2003 request. Although
all programs in this account are classified as R&D, the congressionally
designated projects include funds for a rooftop observatory, a planetarium,
science museums, and education centers. In addition to these earmarks,
there are earmarks in the other SAT accounts, for a total of $126 million
in congressionally designated projects.
The Senate VA-HUD did not
see floor debate and approval before a month-long August congressional
recess, so full Senate consideration has been delayed until September.
The House will not draft its version of the bill until September, at
the earliest, and possibly not until October.
- August 6, 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)
