Geology and Society Division

On May 5, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology approved the NASA Authorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4412), which authorizes $1.83 billion for Earth Sciences and $1.35 billion for Planetary Sciences in 2014. This is a slight increase over the $1.66 billion and $1.27 billion operating budgets of 2013 for the Earth and Planetary Sciences, respectively, and higher than those in the President’s 2015 budget request.

In 2013, two competing Republican and Democratic bills failed to pass the House because of disagreements over funding (the Republican bill assumed that sequestration would continue and the Democratic bill assumed the opposite). The current bill proposes no funding guidelines beyond the current year, which have already been appropriated under the bipartisan budget agreement. The 2014 bill and a manager’s amendment were approved by a bipartisan voice vote and will now be sent to the House floor.

Aside from continued support for the Orion Crew Capsule and the Space Launch System to replace the now-retired fleet of shuttles, the bill requests “balanced and adequately funded activities” within the overall NASA science mission. Specific provisions include support for a Near-Earth Object survey mission (intended to identify and track bolides which could potentially come within ~120 million miles of the Earth), developing and reporting on an astrobiology science strategy; and continuous land remote sensing data acquisition. The bill prohibits action on another program, NASA’s proposed Asteroid Capture Mission, until the Near-Earth Object survey is at least 90% complete; the bill requests a detailed budget plan and mission profile and a review by the NASA Advisory Council before funding for the program will be considered.