Federal Research Funding Update: Impact of Omnibus Appropriations Bill

On March 23, 2018, Congress passed an Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY 2018 that provided some significant increases in funding for various research and education programs of priority to the university. The bill also protected certain federal research and education programs that the Administration proposed to deeply cut or eliminate.  This is the result of a budget deal enacted by Congress in February that lifted caps on spending for defense by $80 billion and non-defense by $63 billion for the current fiscal year. 

Below is a summary of funding levels passed in the bill. 

The National Institutes of Health receives a $3 billion, 8.3% increase to $37 billion. That is well above the increase proposed by either the House of Representatives or the Senate in their versions of the spending bills, and a rejection of the 22% cut proposed by the Administration. 

The National Science Foundation gets $7.8 billion, a 3.9%, $295 million increase. The agency’s research account (R&RA) would grow by about 5%, to $6.3 billion. 

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science receives $6.26 billion, an $868 million increase. That is roughly a 15% increase, rather than the 15% cut the Administration proposed. Congress also rejected the Administration’s proposal to eliminate the Advanced Research Projects-Energy, and instead gave it a $47 million boost to $353 million.

NASA Science programs receive a $457 million (7.9%) increase, to $6.2 billion. The bill increases the agency’s planetary science program by about 21%, or $382 million, to $2.2 billion. NASA’s earth science programs remain flat at 2017 levels, but the bill rejects the Administration's proposed elimination of several earth science missions.

Spending at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grows by $234 million, to $5.9 billion overall. Funding for climate research would remain flat, but the final bill rejects cuts proposed by the Administration and the House.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology gets $1.2 billion, $247 million above 2017.

The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts both receive an increase of $3 million (2%) to $152.8 million. The Administration proposed fully eliminating both programs.

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grows by $45 million, to $1.407 billion. The bill provides $400 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, a $25 million, or 6.7 percent, increase above the FY17 funding level.

For Department of Defense research:

Policy provisions of interest:

Student Financial Aid: