CONTENTS
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, AND TAX ISSUES
- Groups Weigh in on Appropriations Subcommittee Funding Allocations
- FY17 Budget Would Double AFRI Funding
- AAU Will Provide Summary and Agency Budget Materials for FY17 Budget
OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
- Senate Energy Authorization Bill Hits Snag
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, AND TAX ISSUES
GROUPS WEIGH IN ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE FUNDING ALLOCATIONS
Two groups of organizations, both including AAU, have written to House and Senate appropriations committee leaders urging them to sustain research and higher education as funding priorities in their FY17 subcommittee allocations.
House and Senate appropriators are able to begin allocating money among their respective subcommittees, often called the 302(b) process, because last year’s budget agreement set overall defense and nondefense discretionary spending levels for FY17.
A February 3 letter from AAU, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the American Council on Education thanks the appropriators for strong FY16 research and higher education funding, and urges them to sustain those funding priorities in their FY17 spending allocations.
In another letter, dated January 29, the Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI), in which AAU participates, thanks the committee leaders for boosting funding for many research agencies in the FY16 omnibus appropriations bill. The group asks them to sustain that momentum by providing strong funding for the subcommittees that support research in the physical sciences, including Commerce-Science-Justice; Energy and Water Development, and Defense.
FY17 BUDGET WOULD DOUBLE AFRI FUNDING
The President’s FY17 budget will include $700 million for USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative ( AFRI), Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren said February 3 on a conference call. That would be double the current FY16 funding of $350 million.
AFRI is the USDA’s peer-reviewed, competitive grant program for fundamental and applied agricultural science research.
AAU WILL PROVIDE SUMMARY AND AGENCY BUDGET MATERIALS FOR FY17 BUDGET
AAU staff will provide a summary and brief analysis of the research and higher education funding and policy provisions in the President’s FY17 budget when it is released next Tuesday, February 9.
The association will also provide links to the budget materials of individual agencies when they are available. The information will be posted in the Federal Budget section of the AAU website.
OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
SENATE ENERGY AUTHORIZATION BILL HITS SNAG
The Senate this week continued work on its bipartisan energy policy bill ( S. 2012) but failed to complete action because of a disagreement over whether federal loans or direct grants are the best way to address the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis. The bill’s lead sponsors, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), will work over the weekend to seek an agreement, reports CQ.com.
As part of the Senate’s consideration of the Energy Policy Modernization Act, the chamber on February 2 approved an amendment to increase authorized funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by five percent annually over five years. The amendment, offered by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), provides a one-percent increase over the increase that was already contained in the underlying bill.
As reported previously, S. 2012 contains language to reauthorize the DOE Office of Science and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Those provisions were introduced separately last year as S. 1398 by a bipartisan group of Senators led by Senators Alexander and Chris Coons (D-DE). AAU issued a statement in support of that measure.
The Senate has also approved amendments to S. 2012 by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) to increase funding for ARPA-E and by Senators Michael Crapo (R-ID) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to support collaborations among academia, the national laboratories, and private industry on nuclear energy research.