Contact Your Legislator Homepage

FY11 Appropriations Update

Although it seems doubtful Congress will pass all twelve appropriations bills that will keep the government afloat for fiscal year 2011 (FY11) by the end of FY10 on 30 September 2010, several House Appropriations Subcommittees marked up spending bills last week before Congress broke for its July 4^th recess.  The Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science approved a budget for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

A breakdown is as follows:

A more detailed budget breakdown by agency is as follows:

NASA:

NSF:

At this time, a more detailed breakdown of NOAA is not publicly available.

The Subcommittee’s markup must next be approved by the full committee, and then approved by the House.  The Senate will furnish its own numbers and then both House and Senate will hold a conference to work out a compromise.  After the conference, both House and Senate must then vote again on the appropriations before being signed into law by the President.  There is plenty of time to contact your legislators to ask them to support Earth and space science.

Congress will pass a continuing resolution, maintaining funding at FY10 levels, for appropriations bills that are not passed and signed into law by the President by the end of FY10 on 30 September 2010.  A continuing resolution will remain in effect until appropriations bills for FY11 are passed.

America COMPETES Act Needs Your Help  17 May 2010

FY11 Appropriations Update

In 2007, Congress passed landmark legislation with the America COMPETES Act, which was then signed in to law by President Bush (PL 110-69) [pdf]. The original bill was a bipartisan effort led by Representatives on the House Science and Technology Committee in response to the 2005 National Academies report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Among other things, the original bill authorizes the doubling of federal funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The America COMPETES Act of 2007 also established Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). The authorization was set for three years, requiring reauthorization in 2010.

This year, the House Science and Technology Committee has been hard at work on the reauthorization of America COMPETES. The 2010 reauthorization (H.R. 5116) called for the following funding levels:

The full bill was sent to the House floor last week, but it was returned to the House Science and Technology Committee on Thursday, 13 May, after a motion was introduced on the recent issue of some federal employees at NSF viewing pornography on government computers. This passed with a bipartisan majority of 68%. In a press release, Chairman of the Committee Bart Gordon (D-TN), said, "I think COMPETES is too important to let die […] Advocates for science, technology, manufacturing, and education—including the 750 organizations that endorsed COMPETES and their memberships—need to make their case to Members of the House and Senate why this bill needs to be signed into law." In his press release, Ranking Member of the Committee Ralph Hall (R-TX) noted, "I remain committed to the underlying goals of the America COMPETES Act and believe that we should continue to prioritize investments in basic research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education […] However, this bill spends too much money and goes far beyond the original intent and scope of the COMPETES legislation."

Please take a few minutes to call or email your Representative -- by entering your zip code and log in information in the box at the top right of this page -- to support the America COMPETES Reauthorization. Some talking points are provided if you need them:

• America needs an innovative, skilled workforce to remain competitive in the 21^st century, which cannot be accomplished without steady investments in STEM education.
• Steady increases of funding for NSF, DOE Office of Science, and NIST are investments in our future jobs and new industries that will keep America economically sound.
• Science research and development should not be a partisan issue — science has a long history of bipartisan support, and that should not change now when our nation relies so heavily on science.