FY 2014 Appropriations: NASA

The FY 2014 appropriations cycle is coming to a close. On Monday evening the text of an almost 1,600 page bill was released that was the product of intense negotiations between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees since a budget agreement was announced in December. The omnibus bill, consisting of twelve separate appropriations bills, was passed by the House yesterday by a wide margin, is now being considered by Senate, and will be sent to President Obama within the next few days.

Accompanying the omnibus bill is an Explanatory Statement detailing program funding levels and new language about various programs. Under congressional protocol, previous report language for the House and Senate versions of their FY 2014 bills regarding NASA stands unless it is contradicted by new language in the just-issued Explanatory Statement. The Statement is not in final form as it includes hand-written notations; the extensive section on NASA, with a funding table, starts on PDF page 112.

The following language and program funding levels are taken from the just-released Explanatory Statement. The Explanatory Statement does not include current FY 2013 funding levels; those shown are from the FYI describing the House report referenced above. Note that the committee reports and the Explanatory Statement did not include post-sequestration program funding levels for FY 2013 (generally a 5 percent reduction.)

TOTAL NASA:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $17,506.7 million
The FY 2014 request was $17,715.4 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $17,646.5 million

The Explanatory Statement includes the following language:

“Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). - NASA has proposed a new mission known as the ARM that would engage both scientific and human exploration activities. While the ARM is still an emerging concept, NASA has not provided Congress with satisfactory justification materials such as detailed cost estimates or impacts to ongoing missions. The completion of significant preliminary activities is needed to appropriately lay the groundwork for the ARM prior to NASA and Congress making a long-term commitment to this mission concept.”

SCIENCE:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $5,037.4 million
The FY 2014 request was $5,017.8 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $5,151.2 million

The Explanatory Statement includes the following language:

“Education and Public Outreach (EPO). - Consistent with longstanding NASA practice, the agreement maintains EPO funding within the Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The current method of distributing EPO funds within SMD, however, may not produce the most efficient allocation of limited resources. For fiscal year 2015 and future years, NASA shall consider consolidating EPO funding within each SMD division and allocating funds to individual activities based on an assessment of division-wide priorities and program effectiveness.

“Earth Science. - Within the amounts provided for Earth Science, NASA shall comply with direction from the Senate report on land imaging; the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission; Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2; the Pre-Aerosol, Clouds, Ecosystem mission; carbon monitoring; and SERVIR.

“The language contained in the House report regarding funding for the Deep Space Climate Observatory and for climate sensors previously planned for inclusion in NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is not adopted. Prior to expending any funds on the development of the JPSS climate sensors, however, NASA shall submit to the Committees a development plan for each sensor, including a notional budget and schedule profile covering the budget run-out period as well as a description of the effect this funding will have on the achievement of existing NASA priorities as recommended in the 2007 Earth Science decadal survey.

“Planetary Science. - In lieu of any amounts included for specific Planetary Science activities in the House and Senate reports, the agreement provides $130,000,000 for Research and Analysis; up to $40,500,000 for Near Earth Object Observation; $285,000,000 for Discovery; $258,000,000 for New Frontiers, including $218,700,000 for OSIRIS-REx; $288,000,000 for Mars Exploration, including $65,000,000 for the development of the Mars 2020 Rover; $159,000,000 for Outer Planets, including $80,000,000 for a Jupiter Europa mission as described in the House report; and $146,000,000 for Technology, including up to the requested level for Plutonium-238 production.

“NASA shall use the funds provided for the Discovery program to support extended operations for the Messenger program and to increase the tempo by which Announcements of Opportunity (AOs) are released and missions are selected from those AOs. NASA is encouraged to initiate a new Discovery AO no later than May I, 2014 with final phase two selection and award of one or more missions by September, 2015.

“NASA’s discontinuation of Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) flight system development activities may disadvantage individuals or teams whose Planetary Science mission proposals assumed, based on NASA’s previous AOs and development schedule, that ASRG technology would be available to them when needed. NASA shall take steps to mitigate the impact on such proposers and ensure that they have sufficient opportunities to compete for funds in the future with adjusted mission concepts that no longer rely on ASRG technology.

“Astrophysics. - Within the amounts provided for Astrophysics, NASA shall comply with direction from the Senate report regarding the Hubble Space Telescope, the Balloon Project and the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope.

“Heliophysics. - Within the amounts provided for Heliophysics, NASA shall comply with direction from the Senate report regarding the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission, Solar Probe Plus and the Explorer program.”

AERONAUTICS:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $558.2 million
The FY 2014 request was $565.7 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $566.0 million

The Explanatory Statement includes no language.

SPACE TECHNOLOGY:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $628.7 million
The FY 2014 request was $742.6 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $576.0 million

The Explanatory Statement includes no language.

EXPLORATION:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $3,806.4 million
The FY 2014 request was $3,915.5 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $4,113.2 million

The Explanatory Statement includes language on Human Exploration Capabilities (Space Launch System and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) and Commercial Crew.

SPACE OPERATIONS:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $3,871.1 million
The FY 2014 request was $3,882.9 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $3,778.0 million

The Explanatory Statement includes language on the International Space Station (explaining “The agreement maintains strong support for the ISS”); Satellite servicing; Space and Flight Support; and ISS intellectual property.

EDUCATION:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $122.4 million
The FY 2014 request was $94.2 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $116.6 million

The Explanatory Statement includes language on Space Grant, EPSCoR, and STEM education and Accountability Projects.

CROSS AGENCY SUPPORT:

The FY 2013 budget (not including the mandatory 5 percent reduction) is $2,764.5 million
The FY 2014 request was $2,850.3 million
The FY 2014 agreement provides $2,793.0 million

The Explanatory Statement includes language on Security, Infrastructure, and Reports.