Overview of Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations

As in years past, AGI will provide testimony to several subcommittees on programs of importance to the geoscience community.

You can also keep up-to-date with the Library of Congress Table on Current Status of FY 2014 Appropriations Bills and FY 2013 Appropriations Bills and the AAAS Analysis of R&D in the FY 2014 Budget. As in years past, the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Project website has information on trends in federal research and development funding, including information on the president's request, congressional budget resolution, 302(b) allocations, and each science-related appropriations bill.

Appropriations Update for March 2013
The House and Senate passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (H.R. 933) in March to fund the federal government through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2013. The President signed the bill on March 26. The budget process for FY 2014 is expected to pick up in April after the President releases his budget request on April 10. 

H.R. 933 essentially maintains funding at FY 2012 levels for the rest of the fiscal year but subtracts $85 billion in required cuts as a result of sequestration. The sequester was first proposed in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25) and modified in the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240). Because Congress could not agree on a deficit reduction measure by March 1, mandated spending caps for discretionary accounts will be in place through FY 2021 though these could be modified through later congressional action.

H.R. 933 is a hybrid of appropriations bills and a continuing resolution. The original House bill contained the Defense and Military Construction appropriations bill and the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill along with a CR for the remaining accounts. The Senate added the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS); Agriculture; and the Homeland Security appropriations bills. The CJS appropriations bill funds the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) stated on the Senate floor that “the Senate bill provides [NSF] $220 million more than the House CR” and committee documents predict that amount will provide funding for 550 more grants than the House bill.

Appropriations Update for February 2013 
On March 1, 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officially reduced the annual spending amounts of every non-defense discretionary account by approximately 5 percent and defense account by 8 percent. This across-the-board spending reduction, called the sequester or sequestration, was first proposed in 2011 as a penalty so severe it would force Congress to work together to solve the nation’s deficit woes. Unfortunately, no agreement on a package of replacement cuts or additional revenue was made in time to avoid the sequester. In early March, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) introduced a spending bill (H.R. 933) to extend the current continuing resolution (CR) through September 2013 and provide appropriations for the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The current CR expires March 27, 2013.

Because the sequestration occurred relatively late in the fiscal year, it will have the effect of an approximate 9 percent reduction on each non-defense discretionary account. OMB released a report to Congress providing calculations of the amounts and percentages by which certain accounts are required to be reduced. How exactly each agency or department will be affected by the sequester is still very unclear. The report to Congress includes the statement, “There is no requirement that sequestration be applied equally to each type of budgetary resource within a budget account. Section 256(k)(2) of [the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (PL 99-177)]  requires that sequestration be applied equally at the program, project, and activity level within each budget account.” More details about how each department and agency enacts the required reductions will emerge in the coming months.

H.R. 933 would provide $982 billion across the government. This is the amount appropriated last year minus the $85 billion in across-the-board sequestration spending cuts that took place on March 1. It makes certain changes in domestic spending programs including about $600 million more for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture’s wildfire programs. H.R. 933 would direct that $802 million of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) budget be spent on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-system. Congress is scheduled to be on recess when the current CR expires. If  they do not change their schedule, they will have to vote on H.R. 933 or another spending bill by March 22 to avoid a government shutdown.

Appropriations Update for January 2013
In January 2013, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA, P.L. 112-240) to delay the sequestration, or automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, for two months and passed a measure to temporarily suspend the borrowing limit (the “debt ceiling”) until May 19. The debt ceiling bill, called the No Budget, No Pay Act (H.R. 325), would also suspend pay for members of Congress if they do not pass a budget resolution for fiscal year (FY) 2014 by April 15, 2013. 

Even though Congress delayed the vote to raise the debt ceiling until mid-May, they still have two big budget deadlines approaching in March. The first is the sequestration due to take effect on March 1 and the second is the expiration of the current continuing resolution (CR, H.J. Res 117) for FY 2013 on March 27. The upcoming deadlines will likely be tied to deficit reduction efforts meaning further cuts to discretionary spending, including geoscience research and development (R&D), are possible.

AGI encourages all geoscientists to contact their members of Congress and ask them to avoid the sequestration and find a balanced approach to deficit reduction. Geoscience R&D and non-defense discretionary spending account for less than 20 percent of the federal budget and have already absorbed significant reductions over the next decade under the BCA spending caps and other measures. Increasing cuts to these vital R&D programs would mean fewer research grants, fewer student research opportunities, and fewer jobs. On AGI’s sequestration advocacy web site, you will find a sample letter to members of congress urging for a balanced approach to deficit reduction and protection of geoscience R&D that you are encouraged to use or adapt. 

 
The American Geosciences Institute is covering as many of the geoscience-related appropriations hearings as possible and summaries of these hearings as well as tables and summaries of the President’s budget requests are available online at AGI’s Overview of Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations. Just click on your favorite agency or department on the webpage to see the tables and summaries.

For FY13 updates, visit the Overview of Fiscal Year 2013 Geoscience Appropriations.