COSSA Analysis for Action: Congressional Appropriation Votes on NSF and More

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) reports that on May 24 the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year (FY) 2017 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Bill. This bill serves as the vehicle for annual appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Census Bureau, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and countless other federal departments and agencies. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced its version of the CJS bill on April 21. Highlights below; read more here.

  • The House bill would provide NSF with a total budget of $7.4 billion in FY2017, slightly below the FY2016 level of $7.46 billion. The bill does not include language targeting social science accounts for cuts, as we saw last year.
  • The House bill would provide NIJ and BJS with $40 million (+11%) and $48 billion (+17%), respectively. The Senate proposed flat funding for both agencies.
  • The House bill includes $1.47 billion for the Census Bureau for FY2017, an increase of 7.3 percent over the FY2016 level, but 10 percent below the amount requested by the President. The amount is below the Senate’s proposal for Census. 

 

As the House bill moves from appropriations to the House floor, the Coalition for Life Sciences recommends contacting legislators to weigh in on the importance of NSF funding. Learn more here.