Senate Below House On Homeland Security R&D Appropriations

Before the July 4th recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its FY 2015 Homeland Security appropriations bill (S. 2534). According to current AAAS estimates, the bill would match the President's request for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) R&D at $876 million, while roughly $28 million below the House committee version.

• View budget table

The Senate committee generally limited the deviations from the President's budget request for DHS. Like the House committee, Senate appropriators granted a relatively large boost above the request to S&T Directorate cooperative university programs. Unlike House appropriators, however, the Senate committee offset this increase with a cut to the S&T Directorate's primary research account.

The lone big-ticket item in the request, $300 million in construction funds for the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF), was fully matched by the Senate committee, following in House appropriators' footsteps and thus increasing the likelihood construction of the Kansas facility will remain on schedule.

Both bills now await action on their respective chamber floors.