The House and Senate have finished conferencing and have compromised on a budget for Energy and Water spending, which include the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and water-related activities at the Department of Interior. The House passed the finalized budget yesterday and the Senate may vote on it next week.
Department of Interior:
Category: Current Budget; President’s Request; Final
- Water & Related Resources: $920.2 million; $893.1 million; $951.1 million
For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yl67vv7
Department of Energy:
Category: Current Budget; President’s Request; Final
- Overall Office of Science: $4.757 billion; $4.941 billion; $4.903 billion
- Basic Energy Sciences: $1.572 billion; $1.685 billion; $1.636 billion
- High Energy Physics: $795.8 million; $819 million; $810.5 million
- Nuclear Physics: $512.1 million; $552 million; $535 million
- Advanced Scientific Computing Research: $368.8 million; $409 million; $394 million
- Biological & Environmental Science: $601.5 million; $604.2 million; $604.2 million
Meanwhile, the budget for Interior and Environment is still awaiting conferencing between the House and Senate. On 24 September, the Senate passed an appropriations bill for the environment and the Department of Interior (HR 2996), which includes budgets for EPA and USGS for Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10). The bill had already passed in the House on 26 June. However, because there were several amendments made to the bill on the Senate floor, the two chambers will have to come together to hold a conference on the bill. The conference committee will work to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill into a single conference bill, and then both chambers will vote again on the conference bill.
The Senate Appropriations Committee notes that the bill helps communities and public lands by focusing on five priority areas:
- Water infrastructure and environmental protection
- Firefighting and fuels reduction on federal lands
- Bolstering our public land management agencies
- Protecting public lands through the Land and Water Conservation Fund
- Helping the most vulnerable in Indian Country
EPA:
Category: Senate Proposal; House Proposal; Senate Proposal Change over FY09
- Overall: $10.2 billion; $10.46 billion; + $2.55 billion or 25%
- Science & Technology: $842.8 million; $849.6 million; + $52.7 million or 6.3%
- Environmental Programs & Management: $2.878 billion; $3.022 billion; + $486 million or 19%
- Oil Spill Response: $18.38 million; $18.38 million; + $692 thousand or 3.9%
For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/ygnzowm
USGS:
Category: Senate Proposal; House Proposal; Senate Proposal Change over FY09
- Overall: $1.104 billion; $1.105 billion; + $60.5 million or 5.4%
- Water Resources Investigations: $231.02 million; $229.6 million; + $9.7 million or 4.2%
- Geographic Research, Investigations, & Remote Sensing: $143.94 million; $145.6 million; + $1.8 million or 1.25%
- Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes: $247.88 million; $248.2 million; + $5.77 million or 2.3%
- Global Climate Change Research Program: $58.17 million; $58.2 million; + $17.47 million or 30%
For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yl8jxz5
The Senate still has not voted on budgets for Commerce, Justice, and Science, which includes NASA, NOAA, and NSF. FY09 ended Wednesday, 31 September, and FY10 began last Thursday, 1 October 2009, yet no spending bills have been signed into law by the President. Therefore, Congress passed a continuing resolution yesterday to continue federal funding at FY09 levels until all of these spending bills are passed by Congress and signed by the President. The status of all appropriations legislation for FY10 can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/lw5yas
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10/7/2009
ASLA 09-18
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