Budgets

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FY 2003 Appropriations for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

(numbers are in millions)

NOAA	FY 2002 Estimate	President's FY 2003 Request	FY 2003 House	FY 2003 Senate	FY 2003 Omnibus	% Change FY02 vs. FY03
Line Offices:
National Ocean Service (ORF)	414	385	358	403	418	1.0%
National Marine Fisheries (ORF)	579	603	526	588	580	0.2%
Oceanic & Atmospheric Research (ORF)	356	297	337	396	374	5.0%
National Weather Service Operations (ORF)	672	725	695	682	698	3.9%
NESDIS Operations (ORF)	142	152	155	134	151	6.3%
Within OAR:
Climate Research:
Labs & Joint Institutes	49.1	54.6	—	49.1	48.9	-0.4%
Climate & Global Change Program	73.7	72.8	—	74.7	74.7	1.4%
Climate Observations & Services	23.5	41.6	—	30.5	39.5	68.0%
Climate Partnership Programs	3.75	2.0	—	4.8	3.1	-17.3%
Total, Climate Research:	150.2	170.9	—	159.2	166.3	10.7%
Weather & Air Quality Research:
Labs & Joint Institutes	43.9	48.1	—	43.8	41.8	-4.8%
U.S. Weather Research Program:
U.S. Weather Research Program (base)	2.75	3.87	—	2.75	3.8	38.2%
Energy Security Program	3.0	3.0	—	3.0 (moved to NWS)	2.0	-33.3%
Targeted Wind Sensing (New Hampshire)	n/a	n/a	—	2.0	2.0	n/a
Total, U.S. Weather Research Program:	10.25	9.972	—	4.75	7.8	-23.9%
Weather & Air Partnership Programs:
Tornado Severe Storm Research (aka Phased Array Radar) at NSSL	0.0	1.0	—	1.0	0	—
New England Air Quality Study	1.0	0.0	—	1.75	1.75	75.0%
AIRMAP (Univ. of NH)	n/a	0.0	—	5.0	5.0	n/a
STORM (Univ. of Iowa)	349	0.0	—	1.0	349	no change
Total, Weather & Air Partnership Programs:	1.35	1.0	—	8.75	7.09	425.2%
Total, Weather & Air Quality Research:	55.46	59.04	—	57.36	56.7	2.2%
Within NWS:
Advanced Hydrological Prediction Services	1.5	6.2	—	4.5	6.1	306.7%
Aviation Weather	0.0	2.5	—	—	—	—
Local Warnings & Forecasts	539.2	586.5	—	531.5	555.1	3.0%
Central Forecast Guidance	41.9	45.5	—	43.5	43.5	3.8%
Cooperative Observer Network	1.9	1.9	—	1.9	1.9	no change
AWIPS (ORF)	36.5	37.7	—	36.5	36.5	no change
AWIPS (PAC)	16.26	16.26	—	16.26	16.26	no change
NEXRAD (PAC)	8.26	8.26	—	8.26	8.26	no change
Radiosonde Replacement	5.0	7.0	—	6.5	6.9	38%
Within NESDIS:
Environmental Satellite Observing Systems	77.9	91.7	—	75.2	86.1	10.5%
Data Centers & Information Services	64.5	60.1	—	58.7	64.5	no change
National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)	157.4	237.3	—	359.3	322.5	104.9%
Total, NOAA	3,254	3,206	2,965	3,347	3,154	-3.0%

NOTES on Omnibus Bill (2/18/03)

The Operations, Research and Facilities (ORF) account is down one percent from FY02; the rest of the decrease in the NOAA budget is in the Procurement, Acquisition and Construction (PAC) account. Geostationary Systems Acquisition (within NESDIS PAC) is down $90 million from FY02.

Within OAR, Climate Observations and Services received a $16 million increase:

• Climate Reference Network: $3.0 million;

NOTES (1/29/03)

The 108th Congress has begun and only two of the 13 FY 2003 appropriations bills have been completed. On January 7, the House Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) Subcommittee marked up its FY03 bill, providing very little detail on funding for NOAA (no numbers beyond the Line Offices). The low House numbers (NOAA overall down nine percent from last year, OAR down five percent) are in keeping with the President's directive to keep discretionary funding for the remaining bills under $390 billion. House and Senate conferees are working out their differences and an omnibus bill rolling up the remaining bills should be final by the end of February; after the President releases his FY 2004 budget request.

NOTES on the Senate markup (7/25/02)

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Commerce-Justice-State FY03 funding bill on 7/24. The House won't take up the bill until after the August recess.

The Senate provides a 3% increase for NOAA overall; OAR Operations, Research & Facilities (ORF) gets an 11% increase over FY 2002. The $40 million increase in OAR, over FY 2002, is in Climate Research (up $9 million), Weather & Air Quality Research (up $2 million) and Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research (up $29 million — $10 million to establish an Ocean Health Initiative focused on the implications of ocean phonomena for human health. Phenomena including climate change, weather events, coastal hazards, infectious diseases, and harmful algal blooms).

The Senate did not transfer NOAA's National Sea Grant Program to NSF, as proposed in the President's budget request. The report calls it an "ill-conceived notion," saying under NSF, "Sea Grant would lose its State matching requirement and it would lack authorization to continue its successful Extension Program. The Sea Grant program has a long-standing commitment to problem-oriented scientific research and education that responds to the needs of industry, government, resource managers, university scientists, and the broader public. The outreach and technology transfer services of the Sea Grant program have improved science-based fisheries management, pollution remediation, seafood safety, marine safety, and marine engineering. The Committee is concerned that NSF, with its tradition of funding basic science, will be less responsive to the research agenda successfully developed by Sea Grant."

The President's request for the new Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) was for $18 million. It is still somewhat unclear where this money is in the budget and how it will be used, but it appears as if the Senate funds only some of the President's request. The CJS Appropriations Committee report calls the initiative "... an ill-defined program established through the political process. The Committee has, for many years, supported robust funding for the Climate and Global Change Program and activities under Climate Observations and Services. The Committee is concerned that the administration's proposed increases for Climate Change Research are not provided under the Global Change Research Program, but under a separate Climate Change Research Initiative not related to the research program being conducted pursuant to the coordinated Federal process established by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The Committee supports increased funding for global climate change but believes that the funding should be provided to NOAA for research priorities established under the U.S. Global Climate Research Program decision making structure."

Within the U.S. Weather Research Program, the Air Quality Forecasting Pilot Program ($3 million in FY02) and High Resolution Temp. Forecasting Pilot Program ($3 million in FY02) are now funded out of the NWS line office.

Language in the Senate Committee Report on OAR base funding is of particular concern, as it explicitly limits the size of grants and contracts:
"The amounts recommended under Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, 'Laboratories and Joint Institutes', 'Climate and Global Change-Base Program', and 'U.S. Weather Research Program-Base', are subject to the following funding guidelines: Thirty-two percent is for direct labor; 8 percent is for personnel benefits; 1 percent is for former personnel; 2 percent is for travel of persons; 6 percent is for rent and utilities; 20 percent is for contractual services; 4 percent is for supplies and materials; 3 percent is for equipment; 23 percent is for grants and fixed charges; and 1 percent is for miscellaneous expenses. Transfers of funds between these guidelines, or into or out of the base accounts, shall be subject to reprogramming requirements regardless of dollar amount."

The Climate and Global Change Program spends over half of their money on grants to universities, Joint Institutues, etc. This language would limit these awards to 23 percent.

The Senate funded the President's request for the Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions at $15 million.

NOTES on the President's FY 03 request (2/4/02)

OAR Decreases:

The $59 million decrease in OAR reflects the following proposed program transfers:

• A transfer of the Sea Grant Program to NSF ($57 million)
• A transfer of the Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program to the NWS ($2.3 million)

Other reductions in OAR are due to a number of "Partnership Programs" being reduced (or eliminated).

* This increase reflects the $18 million from the President's Climate Change Research Initiative:

The President created the Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) to complement ongoing research funded under the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and other related technology research programs that address climate change. The President's budget request for CCRI is $40 million to be shared among five agencies. NOAA would receive $18 million in FY03. This will begin to focus on "responding to key gaps in knowledge. CCRI will adopt performance metrics and deliver products useful to policymakers in a short time frame (2-5 years)."

The request will support improvement of our predictive and observational capabilities in a number of key areas:

• Climate Modeling Center ($5.0M): to be located within the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to provide a suite of operational climate products to support policy and management decisions.
• Global Climate Observing System ($4.0M): NOAA will work with other nations to help developing countries build global climate observation systems.
• Global Ocean Observing System ($4.0M): NOAA will work with other nations to extend the U.S. portion of Argo floats from 1/3 to 1/2 of the required global array and deploy moored floats in critical locations to monitor indicators of abrupt climate change.
• National Aerosol-Climate Interactions Program ($2.0 M): NOAA will participate in this interagency program by expanding in-situ monitoring, aircraft campaigns and satellite algorithm development for the aerosols sensor planned for NPOESS.
• Carbon Monitoring ($2.0M): to contribute to the North American Carbon Study, which will be an intensive focus on North American land and adjacent ocean carbon sources and sinks. Increased funds will accelerate CO2 measurements in North America, including vertical sampling.
• Regional Integrated Science Assessments (RISA) ($1.0M): Working with the National Science Foundation, NOAA will augument its capability in assessing climate change impacts vulnerability by using the research on "decision making in the face of uncertainty" in the framework of the RISA programs.

The FY03 request for the Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions is $15 million, the same amount it received in FY02. The goal of this program is to "increase the number of students that graduate and receive training in the natural and physical sciences through the four Collaborative Science Centers that NOAA has established at four universities — City College of the City University of New York, Florida A&M University, Howard University, and University of Maryland–Eastern Shore.

The $15 million will provide financial support for graduate study, an Environmental Entrepreneurship Program, and a student fellowship program targeted for third-year undergraduates. NOAA will also provide internship opportunities for these students. By targeting students at minority-serving institutions (MSIs), this initiative will provide NOAA and the MSIs with the means of strengthening their educational outreach to minority communities and populations and providing opportunities for employment in the sciences at NOAA.