Budgets

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FY 2004 Appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF)

(numbers are in millions)

NSF	FY 2003 Omnibus	President's FY 2004 Request	% change FY03 vs. FY04 Request	FY04 House	FY04 Senate	FY04 Conference (w/ 0.59% cut)
Research & Related Activities:
Biological Sciences	570.7	562.2	-2.2%	586.8	577.2	588.5*
Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)	581.9	584.2	0.34%	609.8	609.4	606.0**
Engineering	540.5	536.5	0.47%	560.0	550.0	557.7
Geosciences (GEO)	692.2	687.9	-0.19%	718.0	692.2	714.7
Earth Sciences	147.1	144.2	-2.0%	—	—	—
Ocean Sciences	313.3	313.7	0.13%	—	—	—
Atmospheric Sciences	231.8	229.9	-1.0%	—	—	—
NCAR	79.5	78.8	-0.88%	78.8	—	—
Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)	1,041.2	1,061.27	4.5%	1,107.7	1,085.9	1,093.5***
Astronomical Sciences	161.2	183.0	13.5%	—	—	—
Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences	194.3	211.7	10.1%	221.0	206.7	204.0
U.S Polar Programs	319.0	329.9	3.4%	355.0	353.5	342.9
Integrative Activities	116.7	132.4	13.4%	147.8	157.4	144.1
Major Research Instru.	84.0	90.0	7.1%	90.0	115.0	110.0
Total, Research & Related Activities	4,056.4	4,106.3	0.6%	4,301.4	4,220.6	4,251.4
Education & Human Resources	903.2	938.0	3.2%	910.7	975.8	939.0
National STEM Education Digital Library (NSDL)	—	18.6**	—	—	—	—
Major Research Equipment & Facilities Construction	149.5	202.3	35.3%*	192.0	149.7	154.9
TOTAL, NSF	5,309.9	5,481.2	3.2%*	5,639.0	5,585.0	5,577.8

Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) Account:

Project	FY 2003 Omnibus	FY 2004 Request	FY 2004 House	FY 2004 Senate	FY 2004 Conference (w/ .59% cut)
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)	30.0	50.8	50.8	51.04	50.7
EarthScope	30.0	45.0	43.5	43.73	43.2
HIAPER	25.5	25.5*	completed	completed	—
IceCube Neutrino Detector	24.7	50.0	42.0	35.46	41.75
Large Hadron Collider	9.7	completed	—	—	—
Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulations (NEES)	25.5	8.0	8.0	8.0	8.0
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)	0	12.0	12.0	0	0
South Pole Station	6.0	0.96	0.96 (for final year)	1.3	1.3
Terascale Computing Systems	10.0	20.0	10.0(for final year)	10.06	9.9
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program	—	0	25.0	0	0

Education and Human Resources:

Program	FY 2003 Final	FY 2004 Request	FY 2004 House	FY 2004 Senate	FY 2004 Conference
Math & Science Partnerships	126.7	200.0	140.0	145.0	139.2
EPSCoR	89.4	75.0	90.0	100.0	94.4
Elementary, Secondary & Informal Education	172.3	194.4	204.4	209.4	205.8
Undergraduate Education	159.6	142.1	146.4	172.8	162.0
Graduate Education	139.4	156.8	156.8	156.8	156.0
Human Resource Development	104.5	103.4	106.7	125.5	115.8
Research, Evaluation and Communication	66.7	66.2	66.2	66.2	65.8

NOTES on Conference Report (11/26/03):

A sixth Continuing Resolution (CR) was signed by the President late last week, which will keep much of the government running at FY03 levels until January 31, 2004. While the House and Senate debated the Medicare bill over the past two weeks, appropriations Members and staff worked hard on negotiating the FY04 Omnibus Bill, which incorporates seven of the 13 annual spending bills, including those that fund NSF. The House is slated to vote on it Dec. 8. The Senate is not expected to vote on it until January.

The conference provides NSF with a five percent increase over FY03. Research and Related Activities is up five percent, and GEO is up only three percent over last year's levels. The appropriators not only had a low allocation to work with, they also had to fund other higher priority areas, such as veteran's medical care. Below are the increases (over FY03) for the other Directorates:

• Biological Sciences: +3.1%
• CISE: +4.1%
• Engineering: +3.2%
• Math & Physical Sciences: +5.0%
• Social, Behaviorial and Economic Sciences: +5.0%

* $90 million directed toward plant genome research.

** up to $225 million may be used for information technology research and not less than $20 million may be used for cyberinfrastructure initiatives.

*** $55.3 million is for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory program, of which $9.4 million is provided for the Expanded Very Large Array; $10.3 million is for the Green Bank Observatory; and $4.6 million is for studies and repair of the Green Bank Observatory. The conferees recommend $6 million for continued advanced planning of the Rare Symmetry Violating Process project.

The conference agreement includes $255 million for nanotechnology programs throughout the directorates.

Within the MREFC account, the conferees did not provide funding for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) without prejudice, and direct NSF to consider the recommendations in the National Academy of Sciences report and to continue to refine the NEON plan from funds provided under the R&RA account.

The conferees expect to see funding for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program in the President's FY 2005 request.

Within Education and Human Resources, Informal Science Education was provided $62.5 million, $1 million over FY03 and $12.5 million over the request. The conferees increased graduate stipends to $30,000 (the request).

NOTES on Senate FY04 Markup:

The Senate Appropriations Committee has completed work on its version of the FY 2004 VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, providing NSF with a 5.2 percent increase (the House provided a 6.2 percent increase). While supportive of NSF, the Senate report states that it could not stay on the doubling path for the agency due to this years funding constraints.

The committee provided $25 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), $3 million more than the House and $5 million more than the request.

The committee provided the Informal Science Education program $65 million, $15 million more than the request.

NSF portion of the Senate VA HUD Report: 108-143 (PDF).

NOTES on House FY04 Markup:

The House Appropriations completed work on the VA-HUD bill on July 15. Although not on the approved doubling track, the House provides NSF and Research and Related Accounts(R&RA) with a 6.2% increase over FY 2003. Within R&RA, Geosciences is up 4.2%.

The committee report states that all programs and activities not specified in the House mark should be funded at the FY04 request level, which for a number of programs and projects is a reduction from the FY 2003 level. The Senate is expected to mark up VA-HUD the week of July 21, before they break for the August recess.

Within Human Resource Development, the House provided $2.0 million above the the President's request for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), for a total of $22 million.

NSF section of the House Committee Report 108-235 (PDF).

NOTES on President's FY04 Request:

* This includes $25.5 million for HIAPER, which received final funding in the FY03 Omnibus bill (so will not receive $25.5 in FY04). The increase for MREFC, when not including the request for HIAPER, is 18.2%. The increase for NSF overall, when not including HIAPER, is 2.0%.

Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI): As part of the Administration's multi-agency Climate Change Research Initiative, NSF will support research to reduce uncertainty in critical areas of climate change knowledge and provide timely information to facilitate policy decisions. NSF will establish three to five interdisciplinary centers to improve understanding of risk management, risk communication, and decision making in relation to climate change. The FY 2004 investment in these centers is $4.5 million.

Additional research will advance understanding of abrupt and rapid climate change. Interdisciplinary studies of ocean circulation, combined with studies of paleoclimate records, will document the frequency, temporal resolution, and spatial extent of past rapid climate change. These investigations will complement NSF's ongoing programs in climate change science. The total FY 2004 investment for CCRI is $25.0 million.

CyberInfrastructure: NSF's proposed investment of $20.0 million for Cyberinfrastructure will bring next-generation computer and networking capabilities to researchers and educators nationwide. Building on past NSF investments in high-performance computing and networks, Cyberinfrastructure will integrate high-performance computers and high-bandwidth networks with sensors, large data repositories, and new computational, analytical and visualization tools.

Within Education and Human Resources:

Elementary, Secondary and Informal Education:
FY03 Final: $177.4 million
FY04 Request: $194.4 million

• Informal Science Education: The FY03 final amount for the informal science program was $61 million. The FY04 request declines 18% to $50 million.

Undergraduate Education:
FY03 Final: $160.6 million
FY04 Request: $142.1 million

• * * The total request for NSDL is $23.8 million, with additional funding of $5.20 million in R&RA (GEO and MPS).

Graduate Education:
FY03 Final: $140.8 million
FY04 Request: $156.8 million

• The FY03 Omnibus bills raised the stipend level to $27,500, with accompanying language calling for stipends to go up to $30,000 in FY05. The FY04 request for stipends is $30,000.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduates Program:
FY03 Final: $18.9 million
FY04 Request: $20 million