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U.S. House and Senate Subcommittees Consider FY13 Funding for Commerce, NASA, NSF

April 18, 2012
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This week, both the U.S. House and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies (CJS) approved FY13 funding legislation supporting several key TBED agencies. Press releases from the Senate CJS subcommittee and the House appropriations committee suggest that funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program will likely remain close to the level indicated in the president's FY13 budget at $128 million or a bit higher. FY13 funding for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) is less certain, with the current Senate bill allocating $238 million and the House bill funding it at only $220 million.

The Senate CJS subcommittee issued a press release earlier this week detailing appropriation levels in the Senate bill. Full committee markup will occur on Thursday, Apr. 19, with the results to be made public a few days afterward. The House appropriations committee has released an outline of its own bill before CJS subcommittee markup, which is also scheduled for Thursday.

While Congressional negotiations continue, releases from both houses provide a glimpse at the current state of FY13 appropriations for the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), EDA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Select agency funding levels are provided below.

TBED-Related Agency FY13 Funding Level Comparison
All figures in millions of U.S. Dollars

 

President's
FY13 Budget

Senate
(current)

House
(current)

NIST

859.8

826

830

MEP

128

128.5

128

AMTech

21

14.5

*

NOAA

5,100

3,400

5,000

EDA

219.7

238

220

NASA

17,700

19.4

17,600

NASA Science

4,900

5,000

5,100

NSF

7,400

7,300

7,300

* The House press release does not cite the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) by name but does describe a $21 million allocation for a NIST Advanced Manufacturing competitive research initiative.

Within EDA, the Senate bill would fund Economic Development Assistance Programs at $200 million, including Regional Innovation Partnerships. The House release does not provide corresponding figures, but does include $5 million in grant funding to attract U.S. jobs that have been previously outsourced and $5 million in loan guarantees to help advance innovative manufacturing technologies.

Read the U.S. Senate Appropriations CJS Subcommittee markup press release...

Read the U.S. House of Representatives CJS Subcommittee markup press release...

congress, federal budget, dept of commerce, nasa, nsf