Last week, President Trump sent Congress his budget request for Fiscal Year 2019. The President's Budget Request (PBR) is only the first step in determining appropriations for the coming fiscal year. Over the next few months, Congress will also consider input from agency officials, constituents and other stakeholders as it assembles spending bills for FY 2019. However, Congress must first complete an FY 2018 spending package. Their work has been made easier by the recent passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which raises the overall spending caps for Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019, allowing appropriators room to finalize agency and program funding levels without deep cuts.  

Details on relevant items of the FY 2019 PBR are captured below and links to useful documents follow.

*Agency/Program Termination Proposed

Agency Items of Note:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: The President’s Budget Request would cut NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research by 37%. The PBR calls for a significant reduction to climate research. The NOAA Sea Grant program is proposed for elimination in the PBR.

Department of Defense: The PBR proposes a 19% increase to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Department of Education: The PBR contains sufficient funds to maintain the current Pell Grant maximum award level of $5,920. Further, the document suggests expanding eligibility to “high-quality” short-term programs. The PBR suggests a nearly 50% reduction to the Federal Work Study program and would end graduate student eligibility. The document also proposes eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and subsidized Stafford Loans for undergraduate students.

The PBR proposes a reduction of 14% to the Institute of Education Sciences. Within IES, the PBR eliminates funding for the Regional Education Laboratories and the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems programs.

Department of Energy: The PBR instructs the Office of Science to focus efforts on the early-stage research, operation of the national laboratories, and continuation of high-priority construction projects. The PBR calls for elimination of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy, as did the FY 2017 version.

Environmental Protection Agency: The PBR would cut the EPA Office of Science by 36.4%.

Health and Human Services: The PBR would reduce the HHS grantee salary cap from $187,000 to $152,000. Further, the proposal would cap the percentage of a scientist’s salary that could be paid from grants.

APLU President’s Budget Request Chart

President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2019

Addendum to the Budget Request, Reflecting Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018

Earlier today, the Trump administration released its budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year 2019. The release of a budget request is a largely symbolic step in the annual appropriations process. Actual agency and program spending levels are determined by Congress over the course of several months. Additionally, this year, the budget request put forward by the administration is somewhat undermined by the recently approved Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which provides $300 billion of relief from sequestration for Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019. The allocations in the president's budget request for FY 2019 were assembled over the course of the last year, largely before the recent budget agreement was reached. The administration did attempt to increase its requests for certain accounts, with new resources provided by the budget agreement, through the release of an addendum.

The initial materials circulated by the administration show largely flat funding requested for the major research agencies.The administration requests $7.472 billion for the National Science Foundation, which is the same as the FY 2017 level. The administration requests level-funding or approximately $33 billion for the National Institutes of Health, when funds detailed in its addendum are included. President Trump also requests level funding at $5.391 billion for the Department of Energy, Office of Science. However, the administration once again proposes eliminating the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Additional details will be provided on the budget request in the days ahead.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 has emerged from negotiations on Capitol Hill. The agreement provides two years (FY 2018 and 2019) of relief from sequestration with nearly $300 billion in funding above established spending caps. The bill also establishes a select congressional committee to develop legislation to reform the budget process, which has proven to be dysfunctional through a series of stopgap spending measures and government shutdowns over the last few years. The agreement locks in a $2 billion FY 2018 increase for the National Institutes of Health. The additional budget cap space should also allow for more favorable allocations for research agencies than seen earlier this year in the President's Budget Request and House Appropriations Committee-approved spending bills.

The legislation advanced on the Hill today provides only a framework for the FY 2018 budget and an additional time period (through March 23) for Congress to finalize appropriations for specific agency and program line-items. Packaged with the overarching budget provisions in the bill is emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief, suspension of the debt ceiling through March 2019, and health care items such as 10-year funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Senate Appropriations Committee Statement

Statement of Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair

Legislative Text

CR Summary

Disaster Relief Summary

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