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House Republicans Introduce Year-Long CR with Cuts to Research and Education Agencies

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On Friday, February 11, House Republicans proposed legislation (H.R. 1) to fund the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.  Republican leaders in the House have announced that the continuing resolution (CR) will cut $100 billion in federal spending from the President’s original request for the remainder of FY 2011.  This announcement came after an earlier proposal with a proposed $58 billion in cuts was scuttled due to pressure from the fiscal conservatives in the House.

Not all federal research and education agencies are treated equally in the CR, however most of these agencies would experience cuts below the President’s FY 2011 budget request, with some agencies receiving decreases below FY 2010.  Of the major extramural federal research and education programs, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the Department of Education (DoED) Pell Grant program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were hit particularly hard. The House is expected to debate the bill this week with numerous amendments to be offered.  Below is a brief breakdown of the funding levels included in the CR for the National Science Foundation (NSF), DOE, the Department of Defense (DOD), and NIH.

Next Steps- This proposed spending bill is just the first step in an expected showdown between the House and the Democratically controlled Senate and White House.  House Republicans will face roadblocks trying to pass significant cuts in federal spending in the Senate.  Further, the cuts proposed target federal research programs that the President championed as part of his innovation agenda in the State of the Union address.

If House and Senate leaders cannot come to an agreement on funding for the remainder of FY 2011 by March 4 (which may be likely since members of Congress will return home the last week in February for a district work period), they will need to pass another temporary extension of current funding levels.

Proposed funding levels in H.R. 1:

National Science Foundation (NSF): While NSF is not spared in the proposed CR, it fares better than some other programs.  Overall it would be funded at $6.566 billion, $359 million or 5.2 percent below FY 2010.  Research and Related Activities would be cut by $150 million or 2.7 percent below FY 2010.  Education and Human Resources would be cut by $147 million or 16.8 percent below FY 2010.  MREFC would be funded at $54.79 million, down $62.5 million or 53.3 percent from the FY 2010 level, and $110.4 million or 66.8 percent from the FY 2011 request.  There is no language in the bill specifying which MREFC programs should be cut.

Department of Energy (DOE): The CR would provide a total of $4.018 billion for the DOE Office of Science, which would represent a reduction of $886 million (18.1 percent) below the FY 2010 enacted level. Within the recommendation, the House proposes to reduce by 50 percent funding for the Office of Biological and Environmental Health (BER), which supports data collection and modeling activities associated with climate change among other activities, including three Bioenergy Research Centers.   Under this proposal, the remaining programs within the Office of Science would be proposed for reductions totaling $583.83 million.  These programs include High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Basic Energy Sciences, Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, and related support programs.  The CR would also provide $50 million to keep the doors open at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  ARPA-E has largely been supported with funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) totaling $400 million, which was one-time, non-recurring funding.  As such, ARPA-E does not have a base budget to support future research unless Congress provides additional funding for FY 2011.

Department of Defense (DOD): DOD was largely spared in comparison to many domestic agencies, however the CR would cut roughly $14 billion in funding for several large acquisition programs included in the President’s FY 2011 budget request.  DOD research, development, test, and evaluation (RDTE) accounts would receive a total of $75.21 billion, which is $5.14 billion (6 percent) below the FY 2010 enacted level.  A small portion of the reductions are explained by the lack of Congressional earmarks in the bill, which amount to around $100 million in most fiscal years.  While details are not yet available, the additional reductions signify that DOD research will not be exempt from significant reductions as Congress seeks to cut spending across the federal government.   Specifically, Army RDTE would receive $9.71 billion, which is 15 percent below the FY 2010 enacted level; Navy RDTE would receive $17.96 billion, which is 10 percent below the FY 2010 enacted level; Air Force RDTE would receive $26.74 billion, which is 5 percent below the FY 2010 enacted level; and Defense-wide RDTE, which includes the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), would receive $20.8 billion, which is less than 1 percent above the FY 2010 enacted level.

National Institutes of Health (NIH): The CR would cut NIH by $1.6 billion below FY 2010 enacted levels (5.2 percent), which reduces its funding to the FY 2008 level of $29.2 billion. Of this cut, $260 million is funded by a pro-rated reduction to each institute and center that is based on their projected funding levels for non-competing research project grants (RPG) in FY 2011.  The CR requires that the NIH Director ensure at least a total of 9,000 new competing research grants are awarded in FY 2011 and that the average cost of all competing research grants be $400,000 (current average size is $447,000). This could be interpreted as a call to increase the number of grants and improve success rates by doling out more small grants, rather than large, expensive project grants.  The CR targets the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) by slashing its budget from $689.8 million to $77.5 million for an 88.8 percent cut.

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