FY15 spending legislation approved by the House of Representatives in late May would provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with just over $5.3 billion next year – about $5 million below its current funding level and nearly $200 million below the funding requested by President Obama. Other parts of the measure would increase funding for the National Weather Service while reducing NOAA’s climate research budget to $119 million, which is $37.5 million below its FY14 funding level and $69 million below President Obama’s request.
The NOAA funding was included H.R. 4660, the House’s FY15 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that passed the chamber May 30 by a vote of 321 – 87. Before approval, the House rejected an amendment from Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) that would have restored the $37.5 million NOAA’s climate research budget. Rep. Holt argued that cutting climate research would only make local adaptation needs “harder to predict and more difficult to understand,” but his proposal ultimately failed on a voice vote.
NOAA climate funding fared better under the Senate’s NOAA funding legislation (S. 2437), which that chamber’s Appropriations Committee approved by a 30 – 0 vote on June 5. The bill would provide NOAA with a total of $5.4 billion next year, while increasing funding for NOAA’s climate research initiatives to $160 million next year – about $3.5 million above its FY14 level.