An Extraordinary Budget for NASA in 2016
Congressional omnibus would increase the space agency's budget by $1.3 billion
Posted by source : The
2015/12/16 10:09 UTC
After months of delay, Congress unveiled its plans for funding the federal government in 2016. Assuming this legislation passes into law without major modifications, NASA will fare extraordinarily well. The space agency is set to receive $19.3 billion—nearly $1.3 billion more than it did last year. This is the same top-line level we proposed back in October. I called it the "everybody wins" scenario.
So, did everybody win? Almost. Here are some highlights (a full table for comparison is provided below).
Planetary Science
Since 2012, The Planetary Society has been working to reverse the crippling spending cuts proposed, year after year, by the White House. Our goal: restore the budget to at least $1.5 billion per year (the recent historical average) in order to address the top scientific priorities in our solar system. I'm very pleased to report that, in 2016, Congress will provide $1.631 billion for NASA's Planetary Science Division. That's nearly $270 million above the President's request, which would have cut the program from last year (again).
That money allows both the MER Opportunity rover and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to continue science operations (both were zeroed out in the President's budget proposal). It provides $175 million for the new Europa mission and an additional $25 million for “icy satellites surface technology” development. It directs NASA to develop a lander for Europa. The Mars 2020 rover gets an additional $22 million to keep the project on track. The Discovery (small-class) mission line gets a boost, and Plutonium-238 production is fully funded at $15 million.
This is just a fantastic number for the Planetary Science Division. Planetary Society members sent over 120,000 messages to Congress and the White House this year asking for this increase. And after a year of stunning successes by NASA spacecraft at Pluto, Ceres, and Mars, this increase is well earned. To everyone who took the time to write and call: thank you.
Commercial Crew
NASA was pushing this one, hard. It had requested $1.243 billion to keep both Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon V2 on track for 2017. From the NASA Administrator to astronauts on the space station, the message was consistent: we need this amount to stay on track. They got it. $1.243 billion for Commercial Crew in 2016.
The Space Launch System (SLS)
Here's what a real congressional priority looks like. The President requested $1.36 billion.Congress will spend $2 billion. That's a $640 million increase above the request for what will be NASA's most powerful rocket since the Saturn V. The SLS was also baselined as the launch vehicle for the future Europa mission.
Earth Science
The Earth Science Division at NASA is funded at $1.921 billion. That's less than the President's request, though it still represents a $149 million increase over last year's budget.
Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD)
This perennially underfunded mission directorate stands to receive $686 million. That’s $39 million shy of the President’s request, though it represents a $90 million increase over last year’s amount. However, an earmark directs $133 million of the STMD’s budget to be spent on theRESTORE-L satellite servicing project, a program moved over from the International Space Station budget line that will more than consume the increase to STMD this year.
Top level comparison
What's Next
This bill is referred to as “omnibus” because it mushes together what would have been twelve separate pieces of legislation into a single, 2,000 page epic. Essentially every part of the government that is not Social Security or health care is funded by this omnibus bill. And if this bill can't get signed into law, the federal government has no money to spend, and the government shuts down. Hence this bill is considered a “must-pass” piece of legislation.
Knowing this, members of Congress attach unrelated policy statements in the bill that, while divisive, are not bad enough to sink the passage of the entire bill. Knowing how many policy riders you can get away with is a fine line to walk, and it was one reasons this bill was in negotiations for so long. Do not be surprised if you read about these policy riders in the next few days. It's one of the reasons why omnibus legislation is generally a bad idea.
However, the fact that this bill being released to the public and being readied for a vote means that the Congressional leadership believes they have the votes necessary to pass the thing. That's no guarantee, but better chances than not. The White House has indicated that it will sign the bill as it currently stands.
The vote is not yet scheduled, but it is likely to occur on Thursday or Friday of this week.
Other related posts:
Or read more blog entries about: Future Mission Concepts, FY2016 NASA Budget
I'm surprised not only by the top-line budget numbers, but also by the dollar amounts allocated to individual programs. How does it turn out that Planetary Science (if the budget is passed) receives more money than either NASA or the individual House/Senate committees approved of in the first place? What role is played by Congressional staff, the committees, and/or the Office of Management and Budget in fine-tuning the proposed budget dollars to arrive at the final numbers? Why would those numbers be bigger than what anybody asked for? (Examples: Planetary Science, and Aeronautics Research.)
Without those slick and sleazy lobbyists, we wouldn't have had Dawn or New Horizons or any of those other magnificent robot pioneers. Without our sleezy lobbyists Opportunity wouldn't have gotten to Mars in the first place, much less got the money for lasting this long.
Say what you want about lobbyists in general, but give these guys a round of applause!!!! Thanks!
The October budget deal in Congress paved the way for greater spending on NASA. It set an overall spending level that was an increase over last year. There was just more money to go around, and NASA got a nice chunk of that. With this extra money, proponents in Congress were able to push for additional funding for their favored projects. The OMB is not involved at this stage of the game (they've been working on the 2017 budget request that will come out in Feb).