Senate Appropriators Would Cut NASA and NOAA for FY2011, But Less Than House

Senate Appropriators Would Cut NASA and NOAA for FY2011, But Less Than House

The Senate Appropriations Committee has released its version of the “full year” Continuing Resolultion (CR) — that is, the CR to fund the remaining months of FY2011. The committee proposes to cut both NASA and NOAA, though less than the House-passed full-year CR (H.R. 1).

The committee’s press release says the following about the two agencies:

NASA
“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is funded at $18.5 Billion. This level is a reduction of $461 million, or 2.4 percent, below the FY 2011 request. A year of rethinking NASA’s investments to ensure a portfolio balanced among science, aeronautics, technology and human space flight investments resulted in a NASA Authorization Act signed in October 2010. At this level, NASA will not be provided any funds for requested but new long-range space technology research activities that have the potential to lead to new discoveries and new technologies that could improve life on Earth. However, it avoids an additional $412 million cut by the House that would disrupt ongoing science missions and cause layoffs of 4,500 middle class contractors who provide landscaping, IT, janitorial, and other services for NASA centers.”

NOAA
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) operations and research is funded at $3.2 billion. This is a reduction of $110 million, or 3 percent, below the FY 2011 request level. This funding level removes earmarks and requires the agency to cut administrative and overhead costs. The House cuts an additional $340 million which would threaten critical weather forecasts and warnings.”

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