Department of the Interior

The Administration’s FY 2008 request of $10.705 billion for the Department of the Interior (DOI) represents a decrease of 2.3 percent from the FY06 appropriation. The FY08 figure is 1.7 percent above the president’s FY07 request.

 

In preparation for the National Parks Centennial, the park service will receive the largest budget in its history with $2.1 billion. Indian Affairs, wildfire preparedness, landowner stewardship, rural water, and National Park Service construction bear the majority of the department’s cuts.

 

Research activities within DOI are distributed among many offices and are relatively modest in spending, compared to other agencies discussed in this week’s Digest. Highlights include:

 

US Geological Survey - $975 million (1.2 percent above FY 06 appropriation). Included in the request is an additional $3 million for USGS to begin implementation of the oceans research priorities plan and implementation strategy by conducting observations, research, sea floor mapping and forecast modules. Work on the Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy will lead to decision-support tools to help policymakers anticipate and prepare for coastal ecosystem and community responses to extreme weather events, natural disasters, and human influences.

 

The request for USGS biological research is $181.1 million, a 1.4 percent increase above the FY06 appropriation. The mammalian population ecology and habitat program and the contaminants studies would experience cuts, offset by an increase for the Healthy Lands Initiative.

 

Land remote-sensing and geologic research would experience a 58 percent reduction over the FY06 appropriation. Most of the reduction is the result of eliminating the $68.9 million Cooperative Topographic Mapping item. In addition, the Priority Ecosystem Science Program would experience a $2 million cut. A $2.6 million reduction to geologic resource assessments in the Minerals Research program is proposed, which will result in a 2008 Minerals Research program of $29.9 million.

 

Miscellaneous DOI Research

Many other DOI research activities also experience cuts, such as the Joint Fire Science Program within the Wildlife Fire Management unit of the Fish & Wildlife Service. The program will shift from conducting new research to implementing research deliverables.

 

Research within the Minerals Management Service experiences decreases of $1 million in Environmental Studies, and $1 million for methane hydrates research. Also within MMS, phase out of the Oil Spill Research Program begins in the FY08 request, decreasing the budget by $500,000 from the FY06 appropriation of $6.9 million.

 

Invasive species research within the Bureau of Reclamation would receive a 9.5 percent cut to $530,000.  Research within the Bureau of Indian Affairs would be cut 51.5 percent to $99,000.