In July 2022, the House Appropriations Committee released their 12 Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) appropriations bills. In this post, we’ll detail the House’s proposed spending and programmatic highlights for those science agencies. These spending numbers will set the groundwork for the Senate to start work on their FY23 spending.  

 

Department of Energy
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$44,855.62	$48,183.54	$48,200.00	7.46%	0.03%
Office of Science	$7,475.00	$7,799.21	$8,000	7.02%	2.57%
Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)	$3,200	$4,018.89	$4,000	25%	-0.47%
ARPA-E	$450	$700.15	$550	22.22%	-21.45%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• Within the Office of Science, the committee provides $2.49 billion for Basic Energy Sciences, $405 million for Biological Systems Science and $435 million for Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences. 
• The committee expresses disappointment with the low request for user facility operations as Congress sees DOE facilities as a top priority for the department. 
• For the Energy Earthshot initiative which aims to accelerate breakthroughs of reliable clean energy solutions the committee provides $100 million. 
• The bill provides $60 million for the Office of Science to engage with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and other minority serving intuitions (MSI). 
• The report disputes the agency’s claim that additional legislation is needed for ARPA-E to conduct research and development on climate adaptation and resilience and notes that these issues are within ARPA-E’s scope and that ARPA-E is already funding this work. 

 

 

National Science Foundation (NSF)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$8,838.00	$10,492.08	$9,631.24	8.98%	-8.20%
Research & Related Activities	$7,159.40	$8,425.99	$7,705.53	7.63%	-8.55%
Education & Human Resources	$1,006.00	$1,377.18	$1,250.00	24.25%	-9.23%
Major Research Equipment & Facilities	$249.00	$187.23	$187.23	-24.81%	0.00%
National Science Board	$4.60	$5.09	$5.09	10.65%	0.00%
Office of  Inspector General	$19.00	$23.39	$23.39	23.11%	-0.01%
Agency Operations & Award Management	$400.00	$473.20	$460.00	15.00%	-2.79%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• The Committee accepts NSF’s proposed transfer of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program to the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) and increases the fellowship stipend. 
• The Education and Humar Resources Directorate is renamed STEM Education. 
• The report expresses support for the new Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) directorate and provides $170 for the Regional Innovation Engines. 
• The report also expresses support for NSF’s current research security efforts and urges NSF to consider the resource discrepancies between large and small institutions.  
• The bill provides $76.25 million for mid-scale infrastructure. 

 

 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$24,041.30	$25,973.80	$25,450.00	5.86%	-2.02%
Science Mission Directorate	$7,614.40	$7,988.30	$7,905.00	3.82%	-1.04%
Earth Science	$2,064.70	$2,411.50	$2,334.80	13.08%	-3.18%
Planetary Science	$3,120.40	$3,160.20	$3,200.00	2.55%	1.26%
Heliophysics	$777.90	$760.20	$760.20	-2.28%	0.00%
STEM Engagement	$137.00	$150.10	$150.10	9.56%	0.00%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• The committee strongly endorses the Earth Information Center and encourages NASA to focus on data accessibility, user-friendliness, and accessibility in multiple languages. 
• The committee has concerns about NASA’s proposed 2028 launch date for the Near-Earth Object Mission, a decadal mission, and directs NASA to provide a new timeline for the mission in its fiscal year 2024 budget. 
• The report echos the concerns of the recent planetary decadal that the Mars Sample Return cost is increasing. 
• The report mandates that each state space grant program should receive at least $1 million. 

 

 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$5,877.35	$6,884.14	$6,785.88	15.46%	-1.43%
National Ocean Service	$649.20	$696.00	$706.69	8.86%	1.54%
National Marine and Fisheries Service	$1,015.96	$1,107.00	$1,099.96	8.27%	-0.64%
Oceanic & Atmospheric Research	$647.95	$774.00	$832.63	28.50%	7.57%
National Weather Service	$1,281.67	$1,323.00	$1,365.06	6.51%	3.18%
NESDIS	$1,617.12	$2,283.00	$1,811.63	12.03%	-20.65%
Mission Support	$376.54	$596.00	$593.43	57.60%	-0.43%
Office of Marine & Aviation Operations	$436.75	$418.00	$653.42	49.61%	56.32%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• The Committee notes the important role NOAA plays in providing advanced notice of wildfire risks and active wildfire-weather coupled forecasts, and provides $15 million to fully support fire weather initiatives across NOAA. 
• Within the National Ocean Service (NOS), the Committee provides $176.7 million for seafloor mapping—an increase of $7.7 million—and encourages NOS to partner with states to provide accessible, high resolution integrated ocean and coastal mapping of U.S. near shore waters to support navigation, infrastructure, habitat mapping, restoration projects, resource management, emergency response, coastal resiliency, and hazard studies. 
• NOAA’s Climate Research, within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), receives $254.2 million—an increase of $54.2 million. 
• The Committee provides $11 million for continued modeling, scientific studies, grant programs, and, as possible, observations and monitoring of stratospheric conditions and the Earth’s radiation budget, including the impact of the introduction of material into the stratosphere from changes in natural systems, increased air and space traffic, and the assessment of solar climate interventions. 
• The Committee notes that the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s (SAB) “Priorities for Weather Research” report calls for NOAA to expand its high-performance computing capacity by two orders of magnitude over the next 10 years, so the Committee provides $93.5 million for Research Supercomputing—an increase of $45 million—as a first step towards that objective. The Committee also directs NOAA to provide a briefing on its response to the “Priorities for Weather Research” report produced by NOAA’s SAB. 

 

 

United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$1,394.36	$1,711.00	$1,644.23	17.92%	-3.90%
Ecosystems	$277.90	$375.62	$358.87	29.14%	-4.46%
Energy & Mineral Resources	$95.22	$147.01	$133.01	39.69%	-9.52%
Natural Hazards	$186.00	$219.83	$213.38	14.72%	-2.93%
Water Resources	$285.89	$302.74	$302.24	5.72%	-0.17%
Core Science Systems	$263.80	$348.80	$330.92	25.44%	-5.13%
Science Support	$99.74	$129.20	$117.73	18.04%	-8.88%
Facilities	$184.81	$188.08	$188.08	1.77%	0.00%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• Within the Ecosystems mission areas, the Committee provides $85 million—an increase of $33 million—for the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs), which includes $10 million for Tribal climate adaptation science to build capacity. 
• Within the Natural Hazards mission area, $28.6 million is allocated for the continued development and expansion of the ShakeAlert West Coast earthquake early warning (EEW) system and for capital costs associated with the buildout of the ShakeAlert EEW. 
• The USGS is also directed to provide a briefing to the Committee on the funding requirement, and any associated benefits, for creating a new Sinkhole Hazards Program to conduct sinkhole research, hazard mitigation, hazard assessments, including developing maps that depict zones that are at a greater risk of sinkhole formation. 
• Within the Water Resources mission area, the Committee acknowledges that streamgages are crucial to early warning and flood damage reduction efforts across the U.S. and provides $114 million for the Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program. However, no funding is provided for the Hydrologic science talent pipeline. 
• Within the Core Science Systems mission area, $45 million is allocated for the National Geologic Mapping Program to advance mapping to support the USGS Earth Map and Earth MRI initiatives, enhance drinking water protection, hazards resilience, infrastructure design, natural resource management, and a wide range of fundamental research applications. 

 

 

National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$842.17	$932.06	$878.75	4.34%	-5.72%
w/ Superfund Research Program	$924.71	$1,015.10	$961.79	4.01%	-5.25%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• NIEHS receives a $36.6 million increase from the Committee, which includes $10 million for NIEHS to support and coordinate research on the rise in, and exacerbation of, a wide range of health conditions related to the environment. 
• The Committee also expresses support for NIEHS research to determine the impact of red tide and other harmful algal blooms (HABs) on human health. 
• The Committee provides less than a one percent increase for NIEHS’s Superfund Research Program but encourages NIEHS to continue its work supporting communities’ capacity to respond to pandemics and disasters. 

 

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$9,559.49	$11,900.00	$11,500.00	20.30%	-3.36%
Science & Technology	$750.17	$863.16	$872.74	16.34%	1.11%
Environmental Programs & Management	$2,964.03	$3,796.28	$3,792.32	27.94%	-0.10%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• The Committee provides an increase of $122.6 million for the EPA’s Science and Technology account, which funds all EPA research. 
• $6 million is allocated for EPA to investigate adverse health effects from exposure to HABs and cyanobacteria toxins and to develop methods to monitor, predict, and characterize blooms to all for early action. 
• The EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program receives $30 million—an increase of $1.4 million. 

• The Committee expresses support for the establishment of a National Native Environmental Science Training and Research Center to provide education and research opportunities for Native American and Alaska Natives in collaboration with the EPA and Tribal communities. 
• The EPA receives $295 million, an increase of $200.8 million, for the Agency’s environmental justice activities. The Committee also notes that additional resources for environmental justice are provided within the EPA’s Hazardous Substance Superfund account. 

 

 

U.S. Forest Service
Budget (rounded to the nearest million)	FY22	FY23 President’s Budget Request (PBR)	FY23 House Appropriations	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY22	Percent Change House FY23 vs FY23 PBR
Overall	$7,820.28	$8.946.01	$8,841.82	13.06%	-1.16%
Forest & Rangeland Research	$296.62	$317.77	$360.37	21.49%	13.41%

 

Highlights from the Bill and Committee Report: 

• The Committee increases the Forest Service’s research and development activities funding by $26 million. 
• The Joint Fire Science program is urged by the Committee to ensure that a broad network of academic researchers is considered for funding and that the program addresses the range of research needs to enhance wildland fire resiliency and to address barriers to wildfire management. 

 

 

The House will vote on these bills starting the week of 18 July. Once these spending bills pass, the Senate will then begin work to craft their FY2023 appropriations numbers. Stay tuned for our highlights of the Senate’s spending in the coming weeks.