House CJS Subcommittee Will Recommend Cuts to the President's Requests for NASA and NOAA

The House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee will recommend a $138 million cut to the funding requested by President Obama for NASA at its markup tomorrow.  While some activities are cut, others are increased, such as planetary exploration.  The NOAA budget would be cut from the request of $5.1 billion to $5.0 billion.    Markup is scheduled for 9:30 tomorrow morning in H-140 Capitol.   The committee’s website says it will not be webcast.

Following are the relevant sections from the committee’s press release today.  NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $17.6 billion in the bill, which is $226 million below fiscal year 2012 and $138 million below the President’s request. This funding includes:

 ·         $3.7 billion for Exploration – $59 million below fiscal year 2012. This includes funding to keep NASA on schedule for upcoming Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System flight milestones and to maintain progress in a reconfigured commercial crew program.

 ·         $4 billion for Space Operations – $249 million below fiscal year 2012. The legislation will continue the closeout of the Space Shuttle program for a savings of $503 million.

 ·         $5.1 billion for NASA Science programs – $5 million above fiscal year 2012. This includes $1.4 billion for planetary science to ensure the continuation of critical research and development programs that were imperiled by the President’s request. This also includes $628 million, as requested, for the James Webb Space Telescope. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – The legislation contains $5.0 billion for NOAA, which is $68 million above fiscal year 2012 and $93 million below the President’s request. Within this total, National Weather Service operations and systems are funded at $22.3 million above the requested level, and $916 million, the full request, is included for the Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite program to ensure the continuation of important weather data collection.  These weather programs are essential to maintain and improve weather forecasting to warn communities about potentially devastating natural disasters.