DOE, DOD Funding Bills Pass Senate Floor

Yesterday, the Senate passed its version of a funding bill for the Department of Energy. Although tradition dictates that the House mark up appropriations bills first, Senate appropriators, anxious to make progress before the August recess, drafted their own Energy and Water Development bill (S. 1004) rather than wait to receive the House version.

The information on selected DOE Physics programs below is from Senate Report 105-44, which accompanied the Senate Appropriations Committee’s passage of the bill on July 10. No changes were made on the Senate floor relevant to these programs.

MAGNETIC FUSION: The Senate Appropriations Committee would provide $240.0 million in FY 1998 for Magnetic Fusion Energy. The report states, “This amount will fulfill the Committee’s commitment to provide level funding in light of the magnetic fusion community’s successful effort to restructure the program. This amount includes $2,000,000 transferred to the Magnetic fusion energy’ account from the Nuclear energy’ account for advanced test reactor fusion irradiation.” The report contains complementary language on the restructuring of the fusion program after a 34 percent funding cut that occurred in FY 1996.

SCIENCE: In its report, the Committee combined programs within the “General Science and Research” and “Energy Supply Research and Development” accounts into a single “Science” category, which comprises: high energy physics, nuclear physics, basic energy sciences, biological and environmental research, and other energy research. The report notes, “The Committee is concerned that the level of funding requested...is inadequate to make full use of research facilities in which the Federal Government has made significant capital investments. The Committee urges the Department, in preparing its fiscal year 1999 budget request, to more fully support the capabilities of new facilities, including support for laboratory completion and operating costs and for university researchers conducting experiments at these facilities.”

High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics and Basic Energy Sciences are all funded at the full amount of the President’s FY 1998 request. Under Basic Energy Sciences, the report says, “the Committee recommendation includes $10,000,000 to continue the Department’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research [EPSCoR] Program. Also, the Midwest superconductivity consortium is continued at the current level.”

Under Other Energy Research Programs , the Committee does not fund the request of $25.0 million for DOE’s participation in the Next Generation Internet. “Given the rapid rate of commercial internet technology development,” the report states, “the Committee concludes it is unnecessary for the Department to fund the development of enabling technologies to meet its internet requirements.” However, also under Other Energy Research Programs, the report reinstates funding for DOE’s university and science education efforts with the following language: “The Department of Energy through its national laboratories and sites has unique physical and intellectual resources available to support the Nation’s efforts to prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers by improving teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math at all levels. The Committee regrets the elimination last year of the university and science education program and has provided $10,000,000 to reinstate it. The Department is directed to focus its educational efforts on two areas in fiscal year 1998: expanding undergraduate and faculty research opportunities through programs such as the successful University Lab Cooperative Program; and reinstating programs to support minority institutional development, in particular, the Minority Technical Education Program.”

WEAPONS ACTIVITIES: Funding for DOE’s Atomic Energy Defense Activities is also provided in the Energy and Water Development bill. The Committee would provide $227.0 million for Inertial Confinement Fusion and, of that amount, recommends an increase of $10.0 million “to better exploit the capabilities of the Omega and Nova lasers as well as other assets for the stockpile stewardship program.” For the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the Committee would provide $197.8 million for completion of project design and initiation of construction. The Administration had requested $876.4 million to fund the program through completion of construction in FY 2003, but the Committee recommends only enough for FY 1998 activities.

Today, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its own version of the Energy and Water Development bill. The House appropriators are expected to recommend more funding for water projects than the Senate, and lesser amounts for some DOE programs. This may lead to clashes when conferees meet to reconcile the two versions of the bill: the chairman of the relevant Senate subcommittee is Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), a strong DOE supporter who has two Energy Department weapons labs in his state. Details on House recommendations for DOE will be reported when available.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE:

On Tuesday, the Senate also moved ahead of the House by passing S. 1005, the DOD Appropriations Bill. Passage of this $246.9 billion bill was largely noncontroversial. It followed the previously passed authorization bill, as is customary for defense bills (see FYI #79 .) The full House Appropriations Committee will vote on its bill next week.

In the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying the bill (105-45), there is a 39-page section on Title IV: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation. Budget information is categorized by Army, Navy, Air Force, and Defense-wide. Totaling all “Basic Research” budget lines reveals that the Senate increased the administration’s request of $1,163,672,000 by 0.9% to $1,174,022,000. Totaling all of the “Exploratory Development” lines shows that the Senate increased the administration’s request of $2,814,085,000 by 5.8% to $2,975,874,000.