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USGS Budget Falls 1.9 Percent in Administration's FY 2005 Request   February 27, 2004--The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) budget would decrease by $18.2 million, to $919.8 million in FY 2005, according to the Administration's budget request.  This would represent a 1.9 percent decrease relative to FY 2004 (Table 1).  Funding for Water Resources would drop more than any other discipline, decreasing 4.2 percent.  Funding for Geology would decrease 3.9 percent; funding for Biological Research would decrease 2.3 percent; and funding for the Geography (formerly Mapping) would decrease 1.7 percent.  Some funding for each of the disciplines would be transferred to a new information technology and management account called Enterprise Information (EI) in the FY 2005 budget, resulting in larger apparent decreases in each discipline's budget.  The figures provided in this article have been adjusted to compensate for these internal transfers.     Geology.  Geologic Resource Assessments, which would lose 8.2 percent of funding relative to FY 2004, would be most affected by the budget cuts in the Geology discipline.  Funding for the Minerals Resources program would decrease by $6.5 million, ending or reducing a number of research and assessment activities.  According to the USGS, "terminating these projects will eliminate much of the federal government's ability to conduct mineral resources assessments, evaluate the effect of minerals on ecosystem health, and understand the consequences of mineral resource utilization."  A proposed reduction of $1.7 million in the Volcano Hazards Program would discontinue monitoring improvements on some high-risk volcanoes in Alaska and Hawaii.  The budget would increase funding by $0.8 for Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar monitoring for selected volcanoes.     Water Resources.  As in recent budget requests, all funding for the 54 State Water Resources Research Institutes would be eliminated, including support for research projects under the national competitive grant program authorized by the Water Resources Research Act.  The Institutes received $6.4 million in FY 2004.  Funding for Hydrologic Monitoring, Assessments and Research would be cut by 1.9 percent compared to FY 2004, after compensating for transfers to the EI account.  This would terminate several studies in Toxic Substances and Hydrology, including a project that addresses petroleum-related contamination of U.S. water resources.  The proposed budget would provide $0.8 million to implement a new initiative concerned with water availability and use, which is related to the Bureau of Reclamation's Water 2025 initiative.  It proposes an increase of $1.0 million in Hydrologic Networks and Analysis for studies at Klamath Lake in Oregon.     Biological Research.  In the Biological Research and Monitoring account, research activities in the Klamath Basin and research on controlling invasive species would both increase by $1 million.  The FY 2005 budget would decrease funding for fire ecology and biological fire science by $2.8 million, and would decrease funding for approximately eight "unrequested earmarks" by a combined $4.5 million.   Geography.  The Cooperative Topographic Mapping account would decrease by 2.5 percent, after adjusting for a funding transfer.  Data collection for the National Map would lose the most funding in this account, receiving $1.9 million less than in FY 2004.  This would reduce funds for establishing partnerships with state and local agencies.   According to agency officials, the budget request would eliminate approximately $17 million in congressional earmarks that were added to the USGS budget in FY 2004.  Based on recent history, Congress is likely to restore funding for many of the earmarks and for Water Resources Research Institutes and the associated grants program.     The budget request contains $17.2 million in "uncontrollable" cost increases (including salary increases), of which $9.1 million would be funded in the budget and $8.1 million would be "absorbed" by various programs.  Without full funding for uncontrollable cost increases, the USGS may be forced to curtail ongoing research programs.     Science Support would be the only major account to receive increased funding in FY 2005, which would go toward improvements in financial management.     Table 1. U.S. Geological Survey (budget authority in millions of dollars) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ USGS Activity/Subactivity            Budget Authority ($ Millions)                Change from FY 04 to FY 05 Request1   FY 04-05 Change, adjusted  for account transfers2       FY 20031 FY 2004 FY 2005    Amount Percent   Amount Percent                                                                                 Actual          Enacted        Request           ($ mill.)                                     ($ mill.)                                               Mapping, Remote Sensing, & Geog. Investigations                     Cooperative Topographic Mapping 81.1 80.8 71.0   -9.8 -12.1%   -2.0 -2.5%    Land Remote Sensing 35.7 33.7 33.1   -0.5 -1.6%   0.0 0.1%    Geographic Analysis and Monitoring 16.4 15.2 14.8   -0.5 -3.1%   -0.2 -1.4% Subtotal 133.2 129.8 118.9   -10.8 -8.3%   -2.2 -1.7%                     Geologic Hazards, Resources, and Processes                    Geologic Hazard Assess. 75 75.3 73.0   -2.3 -3.0%   -0.9 -1.2%    Geologic Landscape & Coastal Assess. 78.7 78.4 75.2   -3.1 -4.0%   -1.7 -2.1%    Geologic Resource Assessment 79.5 80.5 72.5   -8.0 -10.0%   -6.6 -8.2% Subtotal 233.2 234.2 220.8   -13.4 -5.7%   -9.1 -3.9%                     Water Resources Investigations                       Hydrologic Monitoring, Assess. & Rsch. 136.8 145.3 139.7   -5.6 -3.9%   -2.7 -1.9%    Cooperative Water Program 64.4 64.0 63.0   -1.0 -1.5%   0.1 0.1%    Water Resources Research Act 6 6.4 0.0   -6.4 -100.0%   -6.4 -100.0% Subtotal 207.2 215.7 202.7   -13.0 -6.0%   -9.0 -4.2%                     Biological Research                       Biological Research and Monitoring 132.1 135.1 129.2   -5.9 return to updates return | home