The House Appropriations Committee last week advanced an FY15 spending bill that would fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at just below its FY14 amount while directing the agency to “prioritize resources on its operational weather forecasting mission.”
The language was included in the FY15 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, which House appropriators approved last week on a bipartisan voice vote. The measure would provide 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.
While NOAA would see flat funding overall, House appropriators would boost the National Weather Service budget by $16 million above the Administration request, to $943 million. This is part of an effort by lawmakers to highlight investment in shorter-term forecasting, which also includes full funding for the Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite program and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, which the panel says will “help maintain and improve weather forecasting to warn communities about potentially devastating natural disasters.” Conversely, the measure would cut NOAA’s climate research budget to $119 million, $37 million below its FY14 funding level.
The Appropriations Committee report that accompanies the legislation includes several other references to the need for NOAA to focus on “its mission-critical responsibilities,” such as research that brings “near-term, affordable, and attainable advances in observational, computing, and modeling capabilities to deliver substantial improvements in weather forecasting.” The report also directs NOAA not to divert funding from weather forecasting activities to support climate modeling.
The full House of Representatives is expected to consider the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill in the coming weeks. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to unveil its own version of the legislation.