CGA NEWS
(7-12-13)
To: CGA
From: A۰P۰L۰U Congressional and Governmental Affairs Staff
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved in a party line, 16-14 vote a $164.330 billion FY2014 Labor, HHS, and Education bill (S. 1284, Committee Report) this week. The bill provides $30.995 billion for the National Institutes of Health, an increase of $307 million from FY2013 enacted levels. The bill also includes level funding for Pell grants at the maximum award level of $4,860; however, including mandatory funding, the total maximum award will rise to $5,785, an increase of $140. Several student aid programs saw increases, including an $11.7 million increase to TRIO and a $5 million increase to GEARUP programs. The largest increases in appropriations went to preschool programs. Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) expressed a desire to take the bill to the floor of the Senate, which has not occurred since 2007.
The House passed the FY2014 Energy and Water Appropriations measure (HR 2609, Committee Report) by a vote 227-198, which includes $2.9 billion less than the FY13 enacted level and $4.3 billion less than the Senate’s bill. The Department of Energy’s scientific research programs are significantly lower than those provided by the Senate Committee, with the Office of Science slated to receive $An amendment by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rob Woodall (R-GA) was approved that increased ARPA-E funding by $20 million, bring it up to $70 million.
Also this earlier this week, the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) Subcommittee approved by voice vote their FY14 CJS bill that would provide $47.4 billion overall, which is $350 million, or less than 1 percent, lower than the current spending. As in past years, it includes a prohibition on NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy from “engaging in bilateral activities with China unless authorized or certified via procedures established in the bill.”
The House CJS bill includes National Science Foundation (NSF) funding at $6.995 billion, which is $259 million below FY13 enacted level and $631 million below the President’s request. It is reported to target “funding for an advanced manufacturing science initiative and for research in cybersecurity and cyber-infrastructure.” NASA is funded at $16.6 billion, a decrease of $928 million below the FY13 enacted and $1.1 billion below the President's request. NASA Science is provided $4.8 billion, which is $266 million below the fiscal year 2013 enacted level. This includes funding above the President's request for planetary science. NASA Aeronautics is provided $566 million and the Space Technology program is provided with $576 million.
The APLU FY2014 Appropriation Priorities chart has been updated to reflect the action this week.
Yesterday, the House narrowly approved, by a 216-208 roll call vote, a revised five-year farm bill (H.R. 2642) after Republican leadership stripped out the nutrition title and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to win conservative votes. This will allow a conference to proceed, but many challenges remain.
Interested CGA and your delegations are invited to attend, “What's Happening in STEM: A Discussion with STEM Education Stakeholders,” on Wednesday, July 17 from 12 pm -1:30 pm in B-338 Rayburn. The briefing, in conjunction with the U.S. House of Representatives STEM Education Caucus, will offer a comprehensive discussion on STEM education from an industry and government perspective. The invitation is attached. For those interested, please RSVP to dager@stemedcoalition.org.
