On June 16th the House Appropriations Committees passed the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which funds the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for fiscal year 2016. Two days later the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the bill. Although both bills fall short of the $1.2 billion the administration requested, the USGS is spared from funding cuts, with the House appropriating the USGS with $1.05 billion and the Senate appropriating the USGS with $1.06 billion, flat funding and an increase of $13.5 million or 1.3% from FY 2015 levels respectively.
The House bill (H.R. 2822) and accompanying report stress the Committee’s support for USGS programs, stating that for more than a century the survey has been charged to “conduct research and provide scientific data and information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.” It describes the unique importance of the USGS, stating “The USGS is the Federal government’s largest earth-science research agency and the primary source of data on the Nation’s surface and ground water resources. Its programs address increasingly complex societal issues such as the development of alternative and unconventional energy resources, management of critical ecosystems, understanding and adaptation to climate change, and responses to natural and human-induced hazards.” The bill holds most of the USGS missions at FY 2015 funding levels. One exception is that the bill shifts $3 million from the Ecosystems mission area to the Climate and Land Use Change to provide the full increase requested by the administration for the LandSat program. The report details the need for the USGS to develop a better understanding of the Cascadia subduction zone hazard. It states the Committee’s concern that the USGS does not have an adequate onshore, real-time instrumentation system and directs the USGS to develop an estimate for the technological upgrades necessary to expand the current Mount Rainier lahar offshore warning system to include all six potentially impacted river valleys. The report also emphasizes the need for the USGS to better understand marine geohazards, such as earthquake-induced tsunamis, landslide-induced tsunamis and subseavolcano eruptions that threaten the West Coast and the deposits of rare earth minerals in the U.S. Island Territories.
The Senate bill (S. 1645) and accompanying report appropriates $1.06 billion to the USGS, a $13.5 million increase from FY 2015 funding levels. Similar to the House report, the Senate report recognizes the unique importance of the USGS, stating it’s the “only integrated natural resources research bureau in the Federal Government.” The report states, however, that the committee is “concerned that some scientific activities are duplicative and outside of the core mission of USGS. While it appears USGS is adapting to new demands by expanding research capacity, there are concerns that some program areas such as Ecosystems and Climate and Land Use Change are advancing at a rapid pace while not enough resources are being devoted to important areas such as Energy and Mineral Resources.” The report proceeds to appropriate the USGS mission areas accordingly, with a relatively large increase of $3.24 million to the Energy, Mineral and Environmental Health mission and relatively small increases of $1 million and flat funding to the Ecosystems mission and the Climate and Land Use Change mission respectively. Similarly to the House bill, the LandSat program, located in the Climate and Land Use Change mission area, receives the entire $4.3 million increase in the administration request. The other USGS mission areas, Natural Hazards, Water Resources, and Core System Sciences, all receive funding increases of $3.1 million, $1.3 million, and $4.8 million above FY 2015 levels respectively.
USGS increases were notable due to the lower levels allocated to other agencies in the bill. Both bills contain funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and policy riders Democrats have dubbed “poison pill riders” they believe will “cripple the nation’s core laws protecting public health and the environment.” The policy riders will impede or prevent the execution of programs such as the EPA's Clean Power Plan, the Waters of the U.S. rule, and proposed update to the federal air quality standards for ozone, as well as the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) hydraulic fracturing rule. Shaun Donovan, the Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, issued a letter to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) outlining the Administration’s concerns with the bill. The letter states that “the Administration has a number of serious concerns about this legislation, which would underfund investments critical to environmentally-sound economic growth and includes unacceptable ideological riders”, and outlines how the bill will underfund climate resilience, land and water conservation efforts, and basic land management operations.
After passing the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, both bills now await a vote on the House and Senate floor respectively. The House floor debate began June 25th, with an expected vote shortly after the July 4th holiday.