Fiscal Year 1998 Appropriation

November 6, 1997

On October 27, 1997, the president signed into law the "Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act" for Fiscal Year 1998. This appropriation act includes funding for NSF as well as for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Veterans Administration, NASA, EPA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and numerous other independent agencies.

For NSF, the act provides a total appropriation in this bill of $3.429 billion. This is an increase of 5% or $159 million over the FY 1997 level and $62 million more than the request for FY 1998.

For the Research and Related Activities Appropriations account, the act provides $2.546 billion, an increase of almost 5% or $114 million more than last year and $31 million more than the request. House and Senate conferees agreed to provide an additional $40 million above the current $20 million level to support an expanded plant genome research program. The conferees also agreed to provide $1 million for the U.S.-Mexico Foundation.

In addition to this appropriation, instead of providing the $10 million request for Next Generation Internet, the conferees included report language directing NSF to credit to the Research and Related Activities account $23 million from the domain name registration activity's intellectual infrastructure fund — which currently has a balance just over $30 million. The conferees have directed that the $23 million be used support NSF activities in the interagency Next Generation Internet program in FY 1998.

For the Major Research Equipment account, the act provides $109 million, $29 million more than last year and $24 million more than the request. Of this amount, $70 million is provided towards the rehabilitation of the South Pole Station in the Antarctic. The conferees deferred support for the proposed Polar Cap Observatory. Instead, they called for NSF to submit a report on the proposed project. The conference agreement also provides the $9 million requested to begin the Millimeter Array radio telescope, $26 million for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) construction, and an additional $4 million to support technology enhancement and other related construction expenses associated with the Gemini telescope project.

For Education and Human Resources, the conferees agreed to provide $632.5 million. This is $14.5 more than the FY 1997 level and $7 million more than the request. The conferees have included additional funds for the Advanced Technological Education program and minority graduate and undergraduate initiatives.

The table below provides a summary of the FY 1998 appropriations process. Numbers are presented in millions of dollars.

_{Totals may not add due to rounding.}