
Image credit – Architect of the Capitol
Image credit – Architect of the Capitol
Over the weekend, Congress struck a deal on a legislative package
The House passed the package on vote of 359 to 53
The deal yielded few surprises for science funding, with most agencies in line for level budgets or moderate increases near the amounts proposed by the House and Senate. The COVID-19 provisions include no funds to address disruptions to research projects, which the Research Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act
The package’s energy policy provisions
Highlights of the funding and policy components of the bills are summarized below, and program-level spending outcomes are detailed in FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker
The $7 billion budget for the DOE Office of Science is increasing marginally, with all programs funded at or just above their fiscal year 2020 levels. Similarly, DOE’s offices for applied energy R&D will all receive level funding or modest increases.
QIS and AI. Congress directs the Office of Science to increase funding for quantum information science by at least 26% to $245 million and for artificial intelligence and machine learning by at least 41% to $100 million.
User facility upgrades. All light and neutron source user facility upgrades currently in planning or under construction will receive steady funding. In addition, the new Linac Coherent Light Source II facility at SLAC National Accelerator Lab is receiving $33 million it needs to continue toward completion
Nuclear fusion. DOE’s contribution to the France-based ITER fusion facility will remain even at $242 million, of which $60 million is for cash contributions. Congress also directs DOE to submit baseline cost and schedule estimates for the project, which have previously been left open-ended. The Energy Act reinforces prior congressional direction
Nuclear energy. The Energy Act cements DOE’s new Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program in statute and recommends Congress immediately ramp up its annual budget to more than $400 million. However, the program’s actual budget is only increasing from $230 million to $250 million in the current fiscal year. Separately, DOE had sought to increase the budget for its planned Versatile Test Reactor project from $65 million to $295 million, but Congress is slowing work on the facility, decreasing spending to $45 million with direction to reformulate it as a “public-private partnership with an option for a payment-for-milestones approach.”
Carbon management. Funding for the Office of Fossil Energy’s carbon capture, utilization, and storage programs is increasing from $218 million to $228 million. Funding specifically for negative emissions technologies across that office, the Office of Science, and DOE’s energy efficiency and renewable energy office is increasing from about $50 million to at least $72.5 million, with at least $32.5 million allocated for technologies that remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The Energy Act calls for markedly expanding DOE’s efforts in carbon management technology R&D and it establishes a government-wide Industrial Emissions Reduction Technology Development Program, recommending that demonstration projects be funded at a level ramping up to $150 million annually by fiscal year 2024.
Energy storage. The Energy Act establishes a unified DOE program for energy storage system R&D, development, and deployment and recommends that Congress fund it at about $200 million annually.
ARPA–E. The budget for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy is edging up from $425 million to $427 million. The Energy Act recommends that Congress ramp its budget up to $761 million by fiscal year 2025 and expands the agency’s mission to encompass nuclear waste cleanup and efforts to improve the resilience, reliability, and security of energy systems.
The budget for NNSA will increase just over $3 billion to $19.7 billion, nearly matching the Trump administration’s request. Most of the additional resources are directed toward nuclear infrastructure modernization efforts, such as reconstituting plutonium production capabilities at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Weapons research. Funding for Stockpile Research, Technology, and Engineering will increase 10% to $2.81 billion, slightly exceeding the request. Congress provides full support to the Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiment project, which is developing a new plutonium imaging facility, but directs NNSA to produce a “contingency plan” if it is not completed on schedule. The project’s estimated cost recently increased
Nonproliferation. The budget for nuclear nonproliferation programs will increase 4% overall to $2.26 billion, with much of the additional resources directed toward nuclear detonation detection R&D and efforts to secure nuclear materials domestically and abroad. Congress matches the requested amounts for a new nuclear forensics R&D initiative
NASA’s budget is increasing 3% to $23.3 billion, with much of the boost going to human exploration activities. However, the increase is far short of the requested amount, effectively dashing the Trump administration’s goal of achieving a crewed lunar landing in 2024. NASA’s science divisions will maintain mostly steady budgets, with heliophysics activities receiving a significant proportional increase.
Proposed mission cancellations. The Roman Space Telescope, SOFIA airborne telescope, PACE Earth science satellite, and CLARREO Pathfinder instrument will all receive full funding, despite proposals from the Trump administration to cancel them.
Europa Clipper. Funded at $404 million, the Europa Clipper will proceed apace toward a launch as early as 2024. For the first time, Congress has altered its requirement that the spacecraft launch using NASA’s in-development Space Launch System rocket, stating it shall use the rocket if it is “available” and if “torsional loading analysis has confirmed Clipper’s appropriateness for SLS.” If those conditions are not met, NASA is to conduct an open competition for a commercial launch vehicle, which the agency anticipates
Mars missions. Congress is ramping up funding for the Mars Sample Return mission to $264 million, aiming for a launch in 2026, in spite of a recent recommendation by an independent review
New heliophysics missions. Within a 4% increase in the Heliophysics Division budget, Congress is providing $15 million more than NASA requested for early work on the Geospace Dynamics Constellation as well as $10 million to begin work on the DYNAMIC (Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling) mission. Both missions were prioritized by the 2013 heliophysics decadal survey for launch early this decade.
Research programs. Congress is increasing the budget for NSF’s disciplinary research directorates by 3% to $6.91 billion and for its education directorate by 3% to $968 million. Congress directs NSF to provide at least level support for “core research,” which it notes encompasses observational networks, research infrastructure, and federally funded research and development centers. It also singles out a few initiatives and programs, supporting NSF’s request to increase funding for quantum information science by 113% to $226 million and artificial intelligence research by 87% to $868 million over the fiscal year 2019 amounts. It further directs NSF to increase funding for its EPSCoR program by at least 5% to $200 million, supporting projects in states that receive a low proportion of federal research funds.
Major facilities. Funding for major facility and equipment construction will stay essentially level at $241 million, providing the requested amounts for construction of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the in-progress upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider and infrastructure at NSF’s McMurdo base in Antarctica. Congress also provides NSF’s mid-scale research infrastructure-2 program
Arecibo Observatory. Commenting on the recent collapse
Research programs. The budget for NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will increase 4% to $614 million, with about half the additional resources directed to climate research. NOAA is directed to spend $9 million of the climate research budget on studies of “stratospheric conditions and the Earth’s radiation budget,” a $5 million increase over the amount specified
Satellite programs. The bill provides the requested amounts for NOAA’s programs to acquire next-generation geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites as well as new space weather monitoring capabilities. It further creates a new program focused on developing innovative mission concepts for the following generation of satellites. Congress also accepts the administration’s proposal to create an expanded Office of Space Commerce that will take on a greater role in space traffic management, though it will remain
Research programs. The budget for NIST’s main research account will increase 5% to $788 million. NIST is directed to increase support for quantum information science from $40 million to $46.5 million and likewise increase funding for artificial intelligence research by at least $6.5 million. Smaller increases are specified for programs in forensics sciences, materials research, and carbon dioxide monitoring and removal.
Facilities repair. Congress cuts NIST’s budget for facilities construction and repair by a third to $80 million and does not accept its proposal to finance renovations to its Boulder, Colorado, campus through a special capital account. Congress also directs the agency to commission an independent assessment of the “comprehensive capital needs of NIST’s campuses.”
Funding for DOD’s Science and Technology portfolio — comprising basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development — will increase 5% to $16.9 billion, though various programs within the military service branches will still see cuts. This budget well exceeds the amounts initially proposed
The USGS budget will increase 4% to $1.3 billion, above both the House and Senate proposals. Congress accepts the agency’s proposal to restructure its Ecosystems and Core Science Systems missions areas, which together will subsume its land imagining and climate change research programs. The Natural Hazards and the Energy and Mineral Resources mission areas are unaffected. Much of the agency’s additional funding is directed to geological mapping and water monitoring programs. The bill also doubles funding for the landslide hazards program to $8 million and provides mostly level support for programs focused on earthquake, volcano, marine, and geomagnetic hazards.
NIH’s base budget is increasing 3% to just under $43 billion, marking the sixth year in a row the agency has received a boost of over $1 billion. Most of NIH’s component institutes will receive budget increases of between 1.5% and 3%, except for those focused on aging and minority health disparities, which will see significantly larger increases
Among a number of marquee initiatives, Congress supports NIH’s emerging artificial intelligence and data science efforts, providing $105 million to support research grants and efforts to increase access to large biomedical datasets. Among Congress’ extensive policy direction for NIH are requirements to strengthen its approaches to combatting sexual harassment and securing the research it funds from exploitation by foreign governments.