FY25 Appropriations Update
The week of July 8, the House is advancing its consideration of FY25 appropriations, while the Senate Appropriations Committee has initiated its own funding deliberations.
House Action
The House appropriators have advanced FY25 funding bills for Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior, Energy, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Agriculture.
The House aligned FY25 funding levels with the Fiscal Responsibility Act but without the additional bipartisan funding previously agreed upon. Notably, the House proposed a 1% increase in total defense spending compared to FY24, while non-defense discretionary spending faces an 8% reduction. Highlights of the bills include:
- Commerce-Justice-Science: Funding levels remain largely unchanged from FY24, with modest increases for the National Science Foundation (2%), NASA Aeronautics Research Directorate (3%), and Space Technology program (7%).
- Energy: The Department of Energy Office of Science sees a 2% increase to $8.39 billion, while ARPA-E faces a 2% cut to $450 million.
- Interior: The House proposed a 31% reduction to the EPA Office of Science and Technology, reducing it to $522.5 million. The National Endowment for the Humanities would receive $203.9 million, a 1.5% decrease.
- Labor-HHS-Education: This bill includes an 11% cut compared to FY24. It contains reductions of 50% to Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work-Study funding, while maintaining the maximum Pell Grant at $7,395. The National Institutes of Health maintains flat funding with plans to reorganize, as recently proposed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Additionally, the bill cuts the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funding by 7%.
The House has already approved four FY25 spending bills: Defense, Homeland Security, Military Construction-VA, and Legislative Branch.
Senate Action
The Senate Appropriations Committee plans to convene on July 11 to approve subcommittee allocations and mark up Legislative Branch, Agriculture, and Military-Construction-VA appropriations bills. Texts for these measures are not yet public.
Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) have yet to reach a bipartisan agreement on subcommittee allocations, likely resulting in a party-line vote. Despite this, bills crafted by the majority are expected to garner some bipartisan support in committee.
An agreement among committee leaders has secured $34.5 billion in emergency spending, with $21 billion allocated to defense and $13.5 billion to non-defense discretionary funding. Consequently, the Senate will operate with a larger budget framework compared to the House.
Senate Armed Services Committee Advances FY25 NDAA
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 22-3 to move forward with the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The legislation now progresses to consideration on the Senate floor. The NDAA authorizes $875 billion for the Department of Defense and $33.4 billion for national security programs under the Department of Energy.
Provisions of interest in the FY25 NDAA include:
- Section 211 would require annual reviews by each head of a DOD component that awards grants for research.
- Section 218 prevents DOD from making awards or contracts to an institution of higher education for conducting fundamental research in collaboration with certain academic institutions identified as engaging in problematic activity unless a waiver is granted from the secretary of defense.
- Section 220 prohibits DOD from making awards or contracts to educational institutions that have been found in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
UNC Public Affairs remains actively engaged with congressional offices as the FY25 NDAA progresses through the legislative process in both chambers.
White House OSTP Releases Guidelines for Research Security Programs
On July 9, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum outlining final guidelines for federal research agencies to comply with National Security Presidential Memorandum 33. This directive mandates that “research institutions receiving federal science and engineering funding exceeding $50 million annually certify to their funding agencies the establishment and operation of a research security program.” A White House press release stated that the memo “defines and establishes a uniform standard for meeting these responsibilities.”
The memorandum offers federal agencies guidance on four key components of a certified research security program: cybersecurity, monitoring foreign travel, training on research security, and adhering to export controls. Institutions are expected to self-certify by providing a “written or electronic confirmation to a federal research agency that they have fulfilled the necessary research security program criteria.”
According to the memo, the rollout of these guidelines is scheduled to occur within the next 6 to 18 months.