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The House of Representatives and the Senate are working to restore funding for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which faced cuts under the Administration's FY 2004 budget request. Different versions of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 10 and by the House on July 17. The House bill (H.R. 2691) would allocate $16.4 million above the agency's FY 2003 budget of $919.3 million, while the Senate bill (S. 1391) would increase the agency's budget by $9.6 million in FY 2004 (Table 1). The Interior Appropriations bill has been passed by the House while companion legislation is pending consideration by the full Senate.
Appropriations for the USGS in both bills were substantially above those in the Administration's FY 2004 budget request, which would cut the agency's budget by $23.8 million and reduced funding for nearly all major programs relative to their FY 2003 budgets. According to a report issued by the House Appropriations Committee, "For the third year in a row the Committee has restored a number of high-priority [USGS] research programs that were proposed for reduction or elimination" (H. Rpt. 108-95).
While both the House and Senate Appropriations bills call for an increase in total funding for the U.S. Geological Survey, budget changes for particular programs are mixed. Both versions of the bill would increase funding relative to FY 2003 for the water resources division and decrease funding for the mapping division. The geologic division's budget would be increased by the Senate bill while the House bill calls for a small cut. Funding for the biological research division would be increased by the House bill and faces a negligible cut in the Senate version.
In its report, the House Appropriations Committee highlighted the USGS's role in homeland security, designating the agency's EROS Data Center as a "National Critical Infrastructure for the purposes of homeland security." The Committee stated, "USGS archived data are critical to federal, state, and local governments for protecting the homeland, natural disaster assessments, and understanding global climate change."
Among the largest changes between the President's budget request and the House bill are an increase of $6.5 million for the Water Resources Research Institutes, which received zero funding in the budget request; an increase of $2.8 million to restore the interagency cooperative fire science program; an increase of $1.9 million for the advanced national seismic system; a decrease of $4 million for Everglades research; and an increase of $9.1 million to restore funding for mineral research and assessments. The House Appropriations Committee report says, "The Committee strongly disagrees with the [Administration's] proposed reduction in the Survey's mineral resources program . . . mineral commodities are essential to both national security and infrastructure development."
The complete text of the House and Senate appropriations bills and the accompanying reports is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/. NCSE's Congressional testimony in support of USGS appropriations is available at www.NCSEonline.org/SciencePolicy.
Table 1. U.S. Geological Survey Appropriations
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| (budget authority in millions of dollars)
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| Budget Authority
| Change from
| USGS Activity/Subactivity
| ($ Millions)
| FY03 to FY04 (%)
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| FY031
| FY042
| FY043
| FY044
| FY043
| FY044
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| Enacted
| Request
| House
| Senate
| House
| Senate
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| Mapping, Remote Sensing, & Geog. Investigations
| 133.2
| 120.5
| 130.2
| 128.9
| -2.2%
| -3.2%
| Cooperative Topographic Mapping
| 81.1
| 74.1
| 80.8
| 81.9
| -0.4%
| 1.0%
| Land Remote Sensing
| 35.7
| 34
| 34
| 30.4
| -4.7%
| -14.9%
| Geographic Analysis and Monitoring
| 16.4
| 12.3
| 15.4
| 16.5
| -6.2%
| 1.0%
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| Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes
| 233.2
| 221.6
| 231.4
| 236.9
| -0.7%
| 1.6%
| Geologic Hazard Assessments
| 75
| 72.8
| 73.8
| 77.4
| -1.6%
| 3.2%
| Geologic Landscape & Coastal Assessments
| 78.7
| 79.4
| 78.8
| 77.5
| 0.2%
| -1.6%
| Geologic Resource Assessment
| 79.5
| 69.4
| 78.8
| 82
| -0.8%
| 3.2%
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| Water Resources Investigations
| 207.2
| 200.1
| 215.2
| 209.5
| 3.9%
| 1.2%
| Hydrologic Monitoring, Assessm'ts & Research
| 136.8
| 135.6
| 144.1
| 138.9
| 5.4%
| 1.6%
| Cooperative Water Program
| 64.4
| 64.5
| 64.5
| 64.6
| 0.2%
| 0.3%
| Water Resources Research Act Program
| 6
| 0
| 6.5
| 6
| 9.0%
| 0.6%
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| Biological Research
| 169.8
| 168.9
| 173.3
| 169.6
| 2.1%
| -0.1%
| Biological Research and Monitoring
| 132.1
| 134
| 134.6
| 131.7
| 1.8%
| -0.3%
| Biological Information Management & Delivery
| 22.8
| 20.7
| 24.4
| 22.8
| 7.1%
| 0.3%
| Cooperative Research Units
| 14.9
| 14.1
| 14.4
| 15.1
| -3.4%
| 1.1%
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| Science Support
| 85.2
| 91.5
| 91.5
| 91.4
| 7.5%
| 7.3%
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| Facilities
| 90.8
| 92.9
| 93.9
| 92.6
| 3.5%
| 2.0%
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| TOTAL
| 919.3
| 895.5
| 935.7
| 928.9
| 1.8%
| 1.0%
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| Source: NCSE analysis of H.R. 2691, H. Rpt. 108-195, S. 1391, S. Rpt. 108-89, The Interior in Brief Fiscal Year 2004, and USGS.
| 1 Included in the FY 2003 Enacted column are: enacted funding ($925.3 million) and ATB reduction (-$6.0 million)
| 2 FY 2004 President's budget request as released on Feb. 3, 2003.
3 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2004 (H.R. 2691; H. Rpt. 108-195) as approved by House of Representatives on July 17, 2003.
4 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2004 (S. 1391; S. Rpt. 108-89) as approved by Senate Appropriations Committee on July 10, 2003.
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