Fiscal Year 1997 Budget Request: NASA

“We asked for stable funding through FY 1997, and that’s exactly what the President’s budget gives us.” -- NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin

On March 19, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin announced the Administration’s FY 1997 budget request of $13.80 billion for his agency. This is the same level that Congress approved in conference for NASA’s FY 1996 appropriations. (The request for FY 1996 was $14.26 billion.) Although President Clinton vetoed the FY 1996 VA/HUD appropriations bill, which funds NASA, the space agency has been operating for the current fiscal year under a series of continuing resolutions, with the funding levels provided by the House-Senate conference.

Goldin reported that the agency has worked to absorb what is expected to be a 36 percent cut through FY 2000 “while maintaining funding stability in the meanwhile.... Continued stability in FY 1997 means we can continue to restructure NASA carefully and deliberately. We can assure safety, achieve real cost savings and eliminate overlap and low-priority support functions and non-essential programs.”

“We’ve aggressively used these cuts,” he said, “to drive us to become more efficient and more relevant to the American people.” He pointed out that since 1992, NASA has turned around from an average cost growth in major programs of 77 percent to underrunning its last year’s cost estimates. “We have nine planetary programs,” he noted, “that, together, cost $700 million less than the single Galileo program.”

Below are the FY 1997 requests for the Science, Aeronautics and Technology account, and the Human Space Flight account:

SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS AND TECHNOLOGY: $5,862.1 million is requested, an increase of 0.3 percent from the conference amount of $5,845.9 million. The requests for selected programs within the SA&T account are listed below, and what they are currently receiving under the continuing resolution based on the House-Senate conference:

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT: $5,362.9 million is requested. Space Station programs would receive $1,802.0 million, a decrease of 3.3 percent from the conference amount of $1,863.6 million. The U.S./Russian Cooperative Program would receive $138.2 million, a 7.0 percent increase from the conference amount of $129.2 million. The shuttle would receive $3,150.9 million, a 0.1 percent increase from the conference amount of $3,14.8 million.

The fact that the FY 1996 budget has not been finalized for the current fiscal year will have an effect on projections of future budgets. Goldin admitted that “Beyond FY 1997, there are obvious uncertainties. The out-year projections in this plan are significantly lower than previous projections: $13.1 billion for FY 1998; $12.4 billion for FY 1999; and $11.6 billion for FY 2000.” But he added, “Our understanding is that these projections are not chiseled in stone. As Administrator, I have decided personally not to take any precipitous action in FY 1996 to work toward these figures because to do so would involve a major disruption to our employees. It would not be fair to put them through this process to reach projections that are not hard and fast.”

Goldin concluded, "...we’re confident that the President’s strong commitment to the research and development that’s so critical to America’s future, and the commitment of our supporters in Congress, will shape a vibrant future for NASA. We’re confident that NASA will continue to transform itself to meet the demands of a new age in government and a new age in exploration.”