House Advances Annual Science Funding Bills

Over the past month, the House of Representatives has introduced and advanced many of its annual appropriations bills to provide fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for federal agencies and programs.  Among these bills was the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill, which was advanced through committee by a party-line vote of 33-26.  The FY 2022 CJS bill would provide $9.634 billion to the National Science Foundation (NSF), an increase of $1.15 billion or 13.5 percent above the current funding level.  Despite this robust increase, the proposed funding level for NSF would still fall short of President Biden’s budget request for NSF by $535 million.

The report accompanying the funding bill lays out several congressional priorities for the agency.  The report would allow for up to $724 million for artificial intelligence (AI) activities, including $50 million directed to AI workforce activities, and encourages investments in “ethical and safe development” of AI and student AI and data literacy.  The report also directs the NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) to conduct a study on the cyber workforce.  While Congress does not break out specific funding amounts for most individual directorates, the report reinforces support for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences and notes the importance of this research.

Although the House will start moving bills through the full chamber as soon as this week, the CJS bill is not expected to be considered until after the August recess.  The Senate does not plan on advancing most of their appropriations bills until September, and a continuing resolution will likely be needed to extend current funding levels past the end of FY 2021.  Lewis-Burke’s full analysis of the FY 2022 House CJS appropriations bill is available here.

A View from the Hill

Washington has not slowed down this summer as it begins to consider a slew of important legislative and funding priorities.  The House of Representatives this month began consideration of 12 annual appropriations bills to determine federal agency funding for the upcoming fiscal year 2022 beginning October 1.  Additional information on the status of the appropriations process and SIOP priorities included in bills introduced in the House is included below.
While the Senate has not yet taken up their annual appropriations legislation, the chamber has been busy considering two separate infrastructure packages.  A bipartisan framework focusing on “hard infrastructure,” such as roads and bridges, has been struggling to progress in recent weeks after negotiations broke down over ways to pay for the package.  Meanwhile, Senate Democrats revealed the broad outlines of a $3.5 trillion package that would focus more on “human infrastructure” and would generally follow the outlines of President Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plans.  Democrats plan to pursue a “budget reconciliation” process, allowing them to pass the infrastructure package with a simple majority, and are expected to absorb the bipartisan framework into their own package if talks break down completely.  Passage of the Democratic-led plan still is not assured, considering the party’s thin majorities, especially in the Senate.

 

DACA Program Ruled Unlawful by Federal Judge

In a recent ruling, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program unlawful and ordered that there be no further approvals of new applications for DACA status.  The ruling does not impact current DACA recipients, though it does cast uncertainty over the future of the program.  In his decision, Judge Hanen stated that former President Obama operated outside the lines of executive authority when he created DACA and that DACA would need to originate in Congress to be legally legitimate.  President Biden indicated he will appeal the decision, announced that the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service will issue a proposed rule regarding the DACA program, and called on Congress to pass a permanent legislative solution for DACA recipients.  Additional information on the ruling is available here.

Publication Type
Washington InfO

Topic
Government Relations