Legislative & Federal News for March 30, 2017

In a document provided to Politico and now widely circulated, the White House revealed its budget reductions for FY 2017. While the budget is currently under a continuing resolution through April 28, the proposed funding numbers largely reflect a partial-year implementation of the administration’s FY 2018 budget blueprint. One new piece of information is that the National Science Foundation would receive a $350 million reduction, equal to about five percent of the agency’s budget.

As SSTI covered with the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology last week, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation submitted its policy priorities to the budget committee in a letter that is not yet published. AIP reports the committee continues to support research at NOAA and NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership, in contrast to the administration’s proposed budget, in addition to NSF’s I-Corps program and other prior priorities.