Understanding Science Budgeting: Veterans/Housing vs. R&D

July 21st, 2004

Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.

If you want to understand the budget process for NASA, NSF, and R&D in EPA, then you have to understand the scope and composition of the VA-HUD Appropriations subcommittees in both the House and the Senate. More money for research means less money for veterans and housing, and vice versa. So when an advocate for more money for NASA or NSF goes to a member of Congress and asks for greater support, the member hears such a request as the equivalent of asking for less money for veterans and people who benefit from low-income housing.

Consider an article in today’s Washington Post, which doesn’t explain these dynamics but describes their consequences in the context of action yesterday by the House VA-HUD Appropriations subcommittee:

“A key congressional subcommittee slashed President Bush’s NASA budget request by more than $1 billion yesterday, dealing a sharp early blow to the administration’s efforts to set in motion an ambitious plan to send humans to the moon and Mars… Congressional sources attributed the panel’s decision to cut $12.4 million from a mission to explore the moons of Jupiter as a casualty of budget austerity. This was felt by other agencies in the bill. Even though the panel boosted spending on the Department of Veterans Affairs by $4.3 billion over 2004, [Rep. Alan B.] Mollohan [ranking member on VA-HUD and D-WV] said the department needed $1.3 billion more for VA housing. Also short, he said, was federal assistance for low-income renters of apartments and houses, despite a proposed funding level of $14.7 billion, $491 million more than in 2004. The bill proposed paring the budget of the National Science Foundation to $5.5 billion, $111 million below 2004 and $278 million below the president’s request. The Environmental Protection Agency’s spending was set at $7.8 billion, $613 million below its 2004 level.”

Worth noting is that the current budget dynamics we are seeing in the FY2005 budget would, according to current plans at least, not be much different under a second term Bush administration or a Kerry administration. Both have promised to hold the line on discretionary spending, though of course that could change after the election.

There will be more to say on this next week (most likely) when the Senate acts on VA-HUD appropriations and the two chambers reconcile. Also expected are hoots and howls from the scientific community after experiencing cuts (if they hold, and even if relatively small) in appropriations for NSF and NASA for the first time in a while.

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