Conferees complete markup of NSF Funding Bill
November 4, 2005
On Friday, November 4, the House and Senate conferees completed their conference on the FY 2006 Commerce, Justice, State and Science Appropriations Act. This bill includes funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Below is some summary information on the NSF mark � more details will be available once the conference report is released.
The conferees have agreed to provide the NSF a total of $5.65 billion � an increase of 3.3% over the FY 2005 level and just slightly above the NSF's FY 2004 level. NSF's research account will increase over the FY 2005 level by almost 4% to $4.39 billion. This is also slightly above the $4.29 billion level for FY 2004.
Within NSF's education and human resources account, the conferees have agreed to fund NSF's math and science education programs at $807 million � the same as the House's recommendation. While this is $70 million more than the $737 million level requested by the Administration, it is still $34 million below the FY 2005 level and $137 million below the FY 2004 level.
Information provided by Joel M. Widder, Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
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