© BRYAN SATALINOIn a 211-to-198 vote, the US House of Representatives yesterday (September 14) approved 12 appropriations bills for the 2018 fiscal year, laying out budgets for discretionary programs, which include most federally funded research. In contrast to President Donald Trump’s earlier proposal, asking for a 16.7 percent cut to basic research spending, the House-approved package would provide a 2.6 percent bump for science, for a total of $35.6 billion, according to an analysis by the R&D Budget and Policy Program of AAAS.
“The appropriations package before us this morning puts the House on the right path to completing its annual appropriations work for the entire federal government,” House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) said on the floor just before passage, according to Politico. “The results are bills that represent our shared values and priorities.”
Specifically, the package includes an additional $2 billion (6 percent) for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which would have suffered a $7 billion (18 percent) slash under Trump’s proposed budget. Other agencies wouldn’t fare as well, with coffers remaining flat or even dropping slightly, ScienceInsider reports. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior would suffer “cuts to numerous major programs and policy riders aimed at overturning or ...
