FY 2018 Funding Bill Advances Through House

The House of Representatives has passed a $1.23 trillion package of eight spending bills to fund federal agencies in fiscal year (FY) 2018. More than 300 amendments were considered during debate on the House floor. The bill ultimately passed 211 to 198. Funding would be cut for many federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey, and intramural agricultural research. Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), who chairs the House Science Committee, successfully offered a largely symbolic amendment that takes aim at social science and climate change research funding by NSF. The amendment reduces funding for all NSF research by $30.2 million and then increases funding by the same amount. Smith said that the motivation for the amendment was to increase funding for basic biological and physical research. Since NSF funding is not legislatively specified for individual research directorates, the amendment does not actually change the funding level for any research programs. Another amendment would have restored funding for science and technology at the EPA to 2017 levels. The agency’s science funding would be cut by 15 percent if the House passed bill were enacted. Representatives David Price (D-NC), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and Jared Polis (D-CO) sponsored the amendment, which was not adopted. Now that the House has passed all 12 a...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news