By Adam Mann
When Republicans took control of the US House of Representatives at the beginning of this year, they promised to make cutting what they saw as an inflated federal budget their priority. True to their word, on 3 February Republican legislators released a miserly budget that includes significant reductions in federal science funding for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year.
The proposed budget, announced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), sets limits that legislators must abide by in crafting a Continuing Resolution (CR) to cover the seven remaining months (March-September) of FY2011. The total sum sheds $74 billion from President Obama’s 2011 budget request, $58 billion of which will come from non-security domestic discretionary spending that includes scientific investments. The details surfaced later in the day, when House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) specified the amounts each of his subcommittees will have to trim to meet the goal.
“We are going go line by line to weed out and eliminate unnecessary, wasteful, or excess spending – and produce legislation that will represent the largest series of spending reductions in the history of Congress,” said Chairman Rogers in a statement.
One of the largest percentage drops would be the Commerce, Science, and Justice subcommittee budget, which would see a 16% decrease from 2010 levels. This subcommittee funds federal agencies such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In addition, the Energy and Water Development subcommittee, which funds the Department of Energy (DOE), would be reduced by 10% from 2010. The Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, which oversees the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), would see an 8% reduction. And the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee, which funds the National Institutes of Health (NIH), would get cut by 4%.
Proving that they are willing to slash funds across the board, the Republican outline reduces military construction and veterans spending by 3% from 2010 levels. It does, however, increase defense spending by 2%.
Each subcommittee will now send a budget recommendation to the full committee based on these numbers that will be combined into an omnibus Appropriations bill. This bill would then make its way to the House for deliberations and voting, a process that could begin as early as next week. (The US federal government is operating under a CR that is set to expire on 4 March.)
Ultimately, the House budget numbers will have to find agreement with the Democrat-controlled Senate and with the President, who pledged in his State of the Union to increase investments in science and technology. The process may foreshadow how deliberations will move forward on the President’s FY2012 budget request, which will be submitted to Congress on 14 February.
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