In our continuing series looking at the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget, we turn to the House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, and Science bill. This piece of legislation is of great importance to the computing community, as it contains the budgets for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

First, let’s look at NSF. The agency has a mixed funding picture under the House’s plans. At the topline, NSF would receive a modest increase of 2.2 percent, going from $9.06 billion in FY24 to $9.26 billion for FY25, an increase of $200 million. This is over a billion dollars less than the Biden Administration request ($10.2 billion) in March.

Going a little deeper, the Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account, home to NSF’s research portfolio, would receive a more generous $7.55 billion for FY24. That would represent a 5.2 percent increase, or $370 million, over FY24 enacted levels. However, much of that increase comes at the expense of the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU), which would receive $1.00 billion or a $170 million cut from FY24 levels (-14.5 percent). Keep in mind that NSF received a significant cut in FY24 and these increases don’t get the agency back to the funding levels they were at two years ago.

Looking at policy items in the Committee’s report, there are several topics of interest. The House appropriators put a great deal of emphasis on the EPSCoR Program, which is NSF’s regional funding diversity program. The committee recommends no less than $250 million for EPSCoR. They also recommended $205 million for the Regional Innovation Engines program within in the TIP Directorate. With regard to artificial intelligence, the House commends NSF for their efforts within the field and directs them to focus on, “workforce development for AI and other emerging technologies to widen the workforce pipeline of students graduating with AI and data literacy,” and, “to support research on AI’s implications on society.” The Committee also recommends $30 million for NAIRR and commends NSF for the launch of the pilot program. Finally, the House appropriators speak highly of NSF’s research security efforts and recommends full funding for the agency’s research security office.

Turning to the National Institute of Standards & Technology’s (NIST), it doesn’t fair well under the House Appropriators’ plan. As we have mentioned before, Congress has used NIST as a vehicle for lots of Congressionally directed funding (meaning earmarks) for the last several years. That makes a year-to-year comparison of their budget difficult. Much of that continues with the House’s FY25 plan. We are doing a topline, FY24 vs FY25 comparison here; AIP FYI continues to do the hard work of accounting for the earmarking.

Under the House’s plan, at the topline NIST would receive a decrease, going from $1.46 billion in FY24 to $1.42 billion in FY25, a $40 million dollar cut (or -2.7 percent). While that is not ideal, the Science and Technical Research and Services (STRS) account, where most of the agency’s research is housed, would see a more significant cut of 7.6 percent, going from $1.08 billion in FY24 to $1.00 billion for FY25. While that $1.0 billion is above the Biden Administration request, when the amount of money set aside for earmarks is excluded ($246 million), the cut to STRS balloons to 11.7 percent.

In terms of policy direction for NIST in the CJS report, there are no real surprises. The Appropriators continue to emphasize NIST’s work on AI, robotics, QIS, and cybersecurity. In fact, there are several specific call outs for more detailed direction on AI, with “Artificial Intelligence Research,” “Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity,” and “Artificial Intelligence Detection” receiving specific attention in the report. Finally, the committee specifically does not fund the agency’s efforts around climate change and the “NIST Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Initiative.”

Finally, looking at NASA’s budget, the space agency would be mostly flat funded for FY25. The agency would receive a 1.2 percent increase under the House’s legislation; that would be $25.2 billion, an increase of $300 million from FY24. The agency’s Science account would receive $7.33 billion, exactly how much it received in FY24. That flat funding is not shared equally, with the Planetary Division receiving an increase, and Earth Science and Astrophysics receiving cuts.

The CJS bill was approved by the full Appropriations Committee on July 9th and is now waiting to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. After that, we must wait and see what happens in the Senate; it is unclear when they will act on their own CJS bill. Final resolution of all the FY25 appropriation bills is unlikely until after the November elections, and the results of those elections will likely dictate when the bills (or single omnibus bill, or some combination) will get a final vote. Please keep checking back for updates.