A new bill passed by a US House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee would give scientific agencies including the National Science Foundation budget increases, ScienceInsider reports. It notes that this serves in contrast to Trump Administration budget requests that ask for reduced funding for these agencies.
"This year's [Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee] funding bill rejects the inadequate and damaging proposals in the Trump Administration's budget requests, and instead provides needed increases to the key programs in this bill," subcommittee chair José Serrano (D-NY) says in a statement.
In particular, this bill would provide NSF with $8.64 billion in funding for fiscal year 2020, $561 million more than it received this fiscal year. The Trump Administration, ScienceInsider notes, has requested $7.1 billion for NSF for 2020, a cut of about $1 billion. This bill would also provide $22.3 billion in funding for NASA, a boost of $815 million, and $751 million in funding for research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a $27 million increase.
The bill is to next move to the full committee for markup.