Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriation

November 18, 2011

Congress passed and the president signed into law the conference report (P.L. 112-33) that would fund a number of agencies including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for the 2012 Fiscal Year that began on October 1. The conference report (minibus) would provide NSF with $7.033 billion, a 2.5% increase ($173.18 million) above the FY 2011 enacted level.

The minibus includes FY 2012 funding for those agencies that fall under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture/FDA, Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS), and Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bills. Conference reports are brought to votes with no opportunity for amendments.

In July 2011, the House Appropriations Committee reported out the CJS bill and provided $6.9 billion for NSF, holding the agency's budget flat relative to the FY 2011 enacted level. On November 1, the Senate passed its version of the CJS bill and provided $6.7 billion for NSF, a decrease of $162 million from the FY 2011 enacted level.

The minibus provides $5.72 billion for the Research and Related Activities account, roughly a 3% ($155 million) increase from the FY 2011 enacted level. The Education and Human Resources account is funded at $829 million, a decrease of nearly 4% ($32 million) compared to the FY 2011 enacted level. The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account is funded at $167 million, a 43% increase over the FY 2011 enacted level. Additionally, the bill provides the authority to move an additional $50 million into the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account from the Research and Related Activities account, allowing the flexibility to nearly fully fund the requested amount of $224.68 million.

The Agency Operations and Award Management account receives $299.4 million. The bill will also provide NSF with the authority (for the first time) to transfer into any account up to 15% of the agency's appropriation. The Office of the National Science Board receives $4.4 million and the Office of Inspector General receives $14.2 million, a 3% reduction and a 1.6% increase, respectively, from their FY 2011 enacted levels. 

Please see the table below for details. Numbers are presented in millions of dollars.

_{Totals may not add due to rounding.}