January 6, 2014

By Paul Basken

Federal science agencies, like most of the government, are expecting to learn by the middle of the month how much money they can spend. And there’s a good chance the amount will be more than it was last year.

That, however, may be the extent of the good tidings from Congress, which last month finally reached agreement on the general outline of a budget for the fiscal year that began last October. That’s because any spending increases within that outline will likely be modest compared with the recent pattern of cuts, with the science agencies holding out little hope for even keeping up with inflation.

“The deal is something of a speed bump on the path down,” Matthew Hourihan, director of budget policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, wrote in an analysis.

After negotiations between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, the House of Representatives voted 332-94 in favor of a plan to allow $1.012-trillion in so-called discretionary spending in the 2014 fiscal year. That’s $45-billion beyond the spending level set by the sequestration law of 2011. The Senate approved the plan by a margin of 64-36.

The next question concerns the divvying up of that extra $45-billion among agencies and programs. Those decisions are expected by January 15, when the government’s current spending authority—a continuing resolution that supplied money on a temporary basis in the absence of an overall budget plan—is due to expire.

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