NSF Congressional Update
October 2, 1998
Summary of FY99 Appropriations Conference Agreement
for NSF
On October 1 House and Senate
conferees met and resolved their differences on the
FY99 VA HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations
Bill. This bill contains funding for NSF as well as
HUD, the VA, EPA, NASA, FEMA, and assorted other independent
agencies.
For NSF, the conferees have agreed to provide the National
Science Foundation with a total appropriation of $3.672
billion for fiscal year. This is $243M or 7.1% more
than the FY98 level.
For Research and related activities, the conferees
have agreed to provide $2.770 billion -- an increase
of $224M or almost 9% above the FY98 level. Within
the amounts recommended for the research account,
the conferees have provided a total of $22M for arctic
logistics activities and an additional $10M above
the budget request for plant genome research. In lieu
of the other setasides and earmarks that were in the
Senate and House reports, the conferees are expected
to provide report language calling on the Foundation
to find ways to improve the participation of institutions
who do not normally fall in the top 100 universities
in terms of research activity. The conferees have
also agreed to provide up to $2M in funding for NSF's
participation in the GLOBE program and $1.5M for the
radius data base project.
For Education and Human Resources, the conferees have
agreed to provide $663 million -- an increase of about
$30 million or about 5% over the fiscal year 1998
appropriation. Within this appropriation, the conferees
have made the following changes to the budget request:
+$7.5M for minority graduate activities; +$6M for
undergraduate minority activities -- an additional
$2M is to also be provided from the research account
for this activity resulting in a total FY99 program
level of $8M; +$10M for informal science education;
and +$10M for EPSCOR. The conferees have also decided
to name the Foundation's Alliances for Minority Participation
program after retiring Congressman Louis Stokes.
For the Major Research Equipment account, the conferees
have agreed to provide $90 million. Similar to last
year, no funds have been provided for the Polar Cap
Observatory. Within the total available to this account,
an additional $17M is provided to the request for
South Pole station to accelerate the ongoing modernization
activity.
Both the Salaries and Expenses and Inspector General
accounts are funded at the request levels of $144
million and $5.2 million, respectively.
Additional details will be provided once the conference
report becomes available. Floor action on this conference
report is expected to take place next week.
| Account
|
FY98 |
Request |
Authorization |
House |
Senate |
Final |
| RRA |
2546 |
2847 |
2847 |
2815 |
2725 |
2770 |
| EHR |
633 |
683 |
683 |
643 |
683 |
663 |
| MRE |
109 |
94 |
94 |
90 |
94 |
90 |
| S&E |
137 |
144 |
144 |
144 |
137 |
144 |
| OIG |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
| Total |
3429 |
3773 |
3773 |
3697 |
3644 |
3672 |
RRA -- Research and related activities
EHR -- Education and human resources
MRE -- Major research equipment
S&E; -- Salaries and expenses
OIG -- Office of Inspector General
See also:
|
