The whistle is about to blow to end recess....

Memorial Day congressional recess is about to end. Members return next week.

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President Obama's supreme court announcement will alter the calendar a bit. The senate will focus on that issue in an effort to get the nominee confirmed before the summer recess (that begins the first of August with a 4th of July time period thrown in where members go to the district/home state).

What does that mean? Well energy and climate change legislation could be delayed. The house has the Waxman/Markey bill that had hit a cap-and-trade speed bump. The senate has their own bills, as opposed to one in the house (see blog entry below on this issue), and work will continue on them. But still, these supreme court appointment can be time consuming. So it may be fall, if then, when a final energy package will be hammered out. And the shape and form of the package (one bill, two bills, 100 bills...) will still need to be determined. Tick tock.

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Hearings are starting to take place regarding FY 2010 appropriations. There is a lot of work to do before the August recess, so June and July will be busy appropriation months....well, they should be. From an A&M point of view, we'll respond to members regarding how supporting agencies like NSF, NIH, DOE, etc. affect our research efforts.

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More ...Obama Administration FY '10 Request

OK, the folks at APLU have assessed the rest of the administration's budget request as it relates to federal agencies that support some of our efforts at A&M.



NOAA
For FY2010, the Administration has requested $4.5 billion for NOAA, which represents an increase of $110 million, or 2.5 percent, over level included in the FY2009 omnibus appropriations bill.

The FY2010 budget can be broken down into two accounts: $3.206 billion for Operations, Research, & Facilities (ORF); and $1.393 billion for Procurement, Acquisition, & Construction (PAC). These two accounts can be divided further into six project categories:

Satellites - $1.429 billion (21.3 percent increase)
Fisheries - $911.8 million (3.7 percent increase)
Research & Climate - $404.6 million (0.9 percent decrease)
Oceans & Coasts - $502.7 million (10.0 percent decrease)
Weather - $963.9 million (0.5 percent increase)
Program Support - $452.7 million (19.0 percent decrease)

The Satellites category received both the largest FY2010 funding request and the largest increase of any FY2010 funding request over the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriation. This category is mainly composed of satellite acquisition projects. In addition, NOAA requested $20.6 million for its Competitive Grant Program, an increase of $4.0 million from FY2009.

On a related note, in FY2009, NOAA also received $830 million in appropriations from the ARRA. Congress approved the NOAA spending plan for the ARRA appropriations on May 7, 2009. The $830 million will be divided into three groups: $230 million for habitat restoration, navigations services, vessel maintenance, and environmental reviews/consultations; $430 million for the construction and repair of NOAA facilities, ships, and equipment, and improvements for weather forecasting and satellite development; and $170 million for climate modeling activities.

The request for Office of Atmospheric Research (OAR), which is $404.6 million, can be broken down further in the following manner:

· Climate research: $209.8 million
· Weather and Air Quality Research: $63.9
· Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research: $107.4 million
· Information Technology, Research and Development, and Science Education: $13.1 million
· Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction: $10.4 million

The NOAA budget can be found on the following website: http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/~nbo/10bluebook_highlights.html.

NASA
The Obama Administration is seeking a total of $18.7 billion for the agency, an increase of approximately 5.1 percent over the amount included in the FY2009 omnibus appropriations bill.

The Science Directorate would be funded at $4.48 billion. The regular FY2009 appropriations bill allocated $4.50 billion to the directorate while ARRA added another $400 million. The budget proposes to fund the Aeronautics Directorate at $507 million; the regular FY2009 bill funded the directorate at $500 million with ARRA providing an infusion of $150 million.

Within Science, the Administration proposes to fund Earth Science at $1.41 billion (it received $1.38 billion in FY2009 and $325 million in the stimulus package) while it would support Planetary Science at $1.35 billion ($1.33 billion in FY2009). Astrophysics would receive $1.12 billion, compared to $1.21 billion for the current year, and Heliophysics would be funded at $605.0 million, compared to $591.6 million for the current year.

Additional NASA budget details are available at the following link: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/344612main_Agency_Summary_Final_updates_5_6_09_R2.pdf.

USGS
In FY2009, the USGS received an estimated amount of $1.04 billion. Under the Administration budget proposal, the agency would receive approximately $1.10 billion in FY2010.

Additional details about the USGS budget are available at the following URL: http://www.doi.gov/budget/2010/data/greenbook/FY2010_USGS_Greenbook.pdf.


DOD
The initial A۰P۰L۰U summary of the budget documents explained the changes in request between the current year and FY2010 without actually providing the actual requests for FY2010. The Administration requests for the basic and applied research programs are as follows:

· Total Basic Research (“6.1”): $1.8 billion
· Total Applied Research (“6.2”): $4.25 billion

· Army basic research: $377.3 million
· Army applied research: $781.2 million

· Navy basic research: $531.3 million
· Navy applied research: $594.0 million

· Air Force basic research: $466.1 million
· Air Force applied research: $1.1 billion

· Defense-wide basic research: $423.6 million
· Defense-wide applied research: $1.78 billion

Approps Cont'd.

Continuing on the Obama Administration approp recommendations, here's the non-S&T programs of note. Again, analysis provided by the able folks at the APLU.

Department of Education (ED)--A cornerstone of the Obama Administration higher education policy is its proposal to turn the Pell Grant Program into an entitlement program from its current status as a discretionary line item. The documents released today reaffirm this proposal and calls for the maximum award to be set at $5,550 for the 2010-2011 academic year. In addition to turning the program into an entitlement, the budget calls for the maximum to increase yearly at the same rate as the consumer price index (CPI) plus one percentage point.

The documents released today also reconfirm the Administration’s desire to end the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). The Administration proposes to originate all new federal student loans after July 1, 2010, through the Direct Loan (DL) program. In order to ensure that the Department has the capability to handle the new loan volume, the budget calls for the Department’s student aid administration budget to increase by $27 million to $870 million in FY2010.

While the Pell and student loan proposals have received the most attention from the community and the press, the Administration has proposed a set of changes to the current Perkins Loan Program. While the Administration has called for the size of the program to be increased to $6 billion, until today, many of the details about the Administration’s proposal were less clear.

The Department is proposing changes to the delivery mechanism of the program, moving away from the institution-based “revolving funds” model and to the same system that institutions currently use for Pell Grants and Direct Loans. The Perkins loans would be serviced by private companies that currently service the direct loans and FFEL loans acquired by the Department.

The distribution formula would be altered as well. It appears that the new proposal could include a number of new conditions that institutions must meet. The appendix states that the Administration “intends for this new formula to encourage colleges to control costs and offer need-based aid to prevent excessive indebtedness. It may also reward schools that enroll and graduate students from low- and middle-income families.” Furthermore, institutions would have the ability to determine student eligibility and the borrowers would continue to receive an interest of five percent, while the in-school subsidy would be eliminated. Institutions would be required to calculate and return to the federal government the federal share of the current revolving funds.

The budget also calls for a new mandatory five-year, $2.5-billion college access and completion fund. Funds would go primarily to states to improve graduation rates among high need students. States would be given the flexibility to fund and support programs.

With respect to other student aid programs, the Administration proposes to fund the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program at $757 million in FY2010, slightly below the current level. The budget also calls for the work-study program to be funded at $981 million, compared to the $1.18 billion in FY2009. The program, however, received $200 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) earlier this year.

The complete set of the ED budget documents is available at the following URL: http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/index.html?src=rt.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)--The Obama budget seeks $171.3 million for the NEH, which represents an increase of $16.3 million over the FY2009 appropriated levels. This sum includes $10 million to run the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs, currently administered by U. S. Commission of Fine Arts.

Additional information about the NEH budget request is available at the following URL: http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20090507.html.

Appropriations First Steps

The Obama Administration laid out yesterday the specifics regarding appropriations for FY '10--dollar amounts going to specific programs. Congress will take these recommendations and get after it. Now will Congress pass the 12 or so appropriation bills by the October 1 start of the new fiscal year? I'm laying 10-1...track record is not that good, but not totally out of the picture. Hey, if Mine That Bird, 50-1, can win the Derby then surely they can pass most of their approp bills on time...did I say 10-1?

Okay, the good folks at the APLU put this early analysis together (and if you're hard core, here's a link to the agencies and line item approp recommendations--http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Appendix/):

Overall S&T--The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has posted documents related to investments in science and research, including those addressing cross-agency priorities, at the following web address: http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/budget/FY2010RD.pdf. The Administration reaffirmed its commitment to double the budget of NSF, Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by FY2016.

NSF--The preliminary budget documents available for NSF call for an overall increase of 8.55% over the FY2009 appropriations level, from $6.49 billion (which does not included ARRA funding) to $7.045 billion. Within that total, the Research & Related Activities (R&RA) account request is $5.853 billion, the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account request is $117 million, and the Education and Human Resources (EHR) request is $973 million.

New research program directions for FY2010 have yet to be released, but NSF has announced a proposal to increase graduate research fellowships from approximately 1200 to 1600.

The NSF website has not yet been updated with the detailed FY2010 budget documents, but the Administration has additional information about the NSF budget at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/nsf.pdf

DOE--The Administration’s FY2010 DOE budget request reiterates the President’s pledge to double the federal investment in basic research at the DOE over ten years. The DOE Office of Science (SC) budget increases nearly four percent with a FY2010 request of $4.941 billion. Within the SC budget, the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) division request is $1.685 billion, a 7.2-percent increase.

The Department’s budget proposes a new cross-agency program, Energy Innovation Hubs, to be funded at $280 million. DOE hopes to fund eight multi-disciplinary Innovation Hubs, under initial five-year grants with a projected total of $35 million in grants the first year, to conduct research and development in the following areas: Solar Electricity, Fuels from Sunlight, Batteries and Energy Storage, Carbon Capture and Storage, Grid Materials, Devices, and Systems; Energy Efficient Building Systems Design; Extreme Materials; and Modeling and Simulation. Universities will be eligible to lead a Hub, which would be multi-partner (Universities, National Labs, and Industry) endeavors.

The DOE budget request states that the agency will continue to support the current 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), but does not call for a new EFRC solicitation. The agency will also continue to fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) with a budget request of $10 million for administrative purposes. The Administration’s budget assumes that ARPA-E will support research grants with the $400 million received in ARRA funding.

In addition, the budget request launches a new K-20+ science and engineering education initiative, RE-ENERGYSE (Regaining our ENERGY Science and Engineering Edge), with a $115 million budget request. Of note for higher education, the initiative would provide funding for graduate research fellowships, training grants to universities to establish multidisciplinary clean energy education programs, and grants for expanded energy-related research opportunities for undergraduates. The Office of Science’s Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists program would complement the RE-ENERGYSE initiative, with a request $20.6 million, an increase of 52 percent.

With respect to other DOE programs, the budget request includes the following funding levels:

· Office of Science Total: $4.941 billion (3.9 percent increase) *as compared to the FY09 Appropriation without the ARRA funding included.

· High Energy Physics: $819 million (2.9 percent increase)
· Nuclear Physics: $552 million (7.8 percent increase)
· Biological and Environ Research: $604 million (0.4 percent increase)
· Basic Energy Sciences: $1.685 billion (7.2 percent increase)
· Advanced Scientific Computing: $409 million (10.9 percent increase)
· Fusion Energy Science: $421 million (4.6 percent increase)
· Science Lab Infrastructure: $133 million (8.1 percent decrease)
· Workforce and Development: $20.6 million (52.2 percent increase)

Additional details about the DOE budget are available at the following URL: http://www.energy.gov/about/budget.htm.

NIH--The President’s FY2010 budget request includes $30.76 billion for NIH from the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. This represents a $442-million (1.46 percent) increase over the FY2009 regularly appropriated level (The budget request also includes $79 million from the Interior appropriations bill specifically for Superfund research) and follows up on the $10 billion infusion for the agency in the ARRA.

The NIH budget request includes funding for strategic priorities such as cancer research, autism research, nanotechnology safety research, and a new effort in bioethics.

The FY2010 request provides $6 billion for cancer research across the agency, an increase of $268 million (5 percent) over estimated FY2009 levels. This is the first of an eight-year plan to double cancer research funding.

The NIH portion of a Department-wide (Health and Human Services) initiative on autism research is by far the largest: NIH’s share, per the budget bequest, would be $141 million (an increase of $19 million, or 16 percent, over estimated FY2009 levels), with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Services Administration providing an additional $70 million.

Under the FY2010 budget proposal, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences would receive an additional $9 million for a new initiative in nanotechnology-related environment, health and safety research.

The Administration request also outlines $5 million from the Office of the Director to launch a new effort in bioethics. This commitment to bioethics research and training would be funded in coordination with the various Institutes and Centers and is proposed as an important undertaking to maintain and enhance public trust and confidence as NIH-funded research explores new frontiers in science, bioinformatics and biomedical and behavioral medicine.

NIH budget documents are available at the following URL: http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/UI/HomePage.htm.

USDA--The first Obama USDA budget would fund research and education activities at the agency at $622.9 million, a decrease of approximately $68.2 million, primarily as a result of reductions in “special grants.” Extension activities would see an increase of nearly $13 million to $487.0 million while integrated activities as a whole would be level-funded at $56.9 million.

The budget calls for significant increases for Institution Challenge Grants and the Secondary/2-year Postsecondary program and would create a new “Improved Rural Quality of Life Grants” program.

The following links may provide additional details about the USDA budget:

· http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/agr.pdf,
· http://www.csrees.usda.gov/about/offices/budget/fy10_budget_table.pdf.

DOD--The Administration seeks to continue its overall commitment to basic and applied research in the defense budget as well, although it does not call for increases across the board. The numbers included in the analysis below represents comparisons between the FY2010 budget request and the FY2009 budget request, and not a comparison between the FY2010 request and the FY2009 final appropriation.
Overall basic research (“6.1”) would see an increase of $99.6 million, or 6 percent, over the FY2009 request while the budget proposes to virtually level fund all applied research programs (“6.2”) with a proposed cut of $1.7 million

The “R-1,” the document which details the DOD research budget, is available in its entirety at the following URL: http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2010/fy2010_r1.pdf.

Additional DOD budget-related documents are available at the following link: http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/Budget2010.html.

NASA--NASA is being assessed but budget documents are available at the following link: http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html.