Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittee

On April 17, the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee approved by a vote of 17-1 their FY2013 spending bill providing $51.9 billion in discretionary budget authority. It includes a 3.3 percent or $240-million budget increase over FY12 levels for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a total of $7.27 billion. This is $100 million short of the President’s request of $7.37 billion.  News outlets reported that the bill will fund NSF Education and Facilities accounts level with the President’s request but the Research and Related Activities account would be $100 million lower than requested.

Also within the Senate CJS bill, NASA would also receive an increase of $1.6 billion for a total of $19.4 billion for the agency, 10 percent more than the President requested. The bill funds NASA Science Mission Directorate at $69 million less than current levels at $5 billion. It also fully funds the James Webb Space Telescope.

House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee

The House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee has their markup scheduled for the morning of April 19 and have posted their draft bill. The House bill contains $51.1 billion in funding, a reduction of $1.6 billion below last year’s level. The draft bill includes $7.3 billion for National Science Foundation (NSF), $299 million above FY2 and $41 million below the President’s request. The draft includes $128 million for the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership program and $21 million for an Advanced Manufacturing competitive research initiative at NIST.

The House draft funds NASA at $17.6 billion in the bill, $226 million below FY12 and $138 million below the President’s request. Within NASA, $5.1 billion is for Science programs, nearly flat with current levels. Specifically, this includes $1.4 billion for planetary science and $628 million, as requested, for the James Webb Space Telescope.