The Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations
Subcommittee completed its work yesterday, and this afternoon
took its FY 2002 bill before the full Senate Appropriations
Committee. Some information on the National Science
Foundation portion of the bill has been made available.
Despite a higher subcommittee allocation, the Senate bill
provides significantly less money for the NSF in FY 2002 than
the House bill.

The Senate bill numbers are unexpected because subcommittee
chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Ranking Minority Member
Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-MO) are the strongest advocates in
the Senate for a doubling of the NSF budget over five years.
Such a doubling would have required roughly a 15% increase to
keep the foundation’s budget on a steady projection. The lack
of a higher allocation was cited as the reason why the NSF
numbers are not higher. The Senate bill provides about 1/3 of
what is needed for a “doubling” budget.

The subcommittee bill would increase the total National
Science Foundation budget for FY 2002 by 5.6% to $4,672.5
million. The House bill would provide a 9.4% increase to
$4,840.1 million. The difference between the two bills is
$168 million. Both bills are higher than the Bush
Administration’s request of $4,472.5 million. The current
budget is $4,426.1 million.

The Senate bill also provides less for Research and Related
Activities than the House bill. The Senate bill recommends an
increase of 4.9% to $3,515.5 million. The House bill would
increase this budget by 8.7% to $3,642.3 million. The
difference between the bills is $127.8 million. The Bush
Administration had sought a reduction to $3,326.9 million.
The current budget is $3,350.0 million.

The two bills differ markedly in the Major Research Equipment
account. The Senate bill would reduce this budget by 10.5% to
$108.8 million. In contrast, the House bill recommends an
11.3% increase to $135.3 million. The difference is $26.5
million. The Bush Administration sought a reduction to $96.3
million. The current budget is $121.6 million.

The House bill is also higher for the Education and Human
Resources budget. The Senate bill includes an 11.0%
increase to $872.4 million, which was the Administration’s
request. The House bill would increase this budget by 12.8%
to $886.0 million. The difference between the two bills is
$13.6 million. The current budget is $785.6 million.

Report language from both the House and Senate bills will be
summarized in forthcoming issues of FYI, as well as
information on the Senate numbers for NASA.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted its approval of this
bill this afternoon, and sent it to the full Senate. It
appears that no changes were made in the National Science
Foundation portion of the bill. The Senate floor schedule is
unclear at this point, as Democratic and Republican leaders
are arguing over the agenda for the two weeks remaining before
the summer recess.

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Richard M .Jones

Public Information Division

The American Institute of Physics

fyi@aip.org

(301) 209-3095

http://www.aip.org/gov

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