A subsequent update will review the president s requests for NSF, NASA, EPA, NOAA, and other DOE and Interior programs. A high-flying economy has given way to a bear market, and a new president is determined to rein in federal spending in order to make room for a giant tax cut. As a result, the new budget request for geoscience programs primarily consists of bad news and worse news. It was a small step forward after years of budgetary stagnation interrupted only by the addition of functions from the abolished National Biological Service and U.S. Bureau of Mines. It is the largest staff reduction of any Interior bureau and represents 30 percent of the job losses in the entire department.
Geologic mapping is particularly hard hit, erasing the advances made the previous year.
Both geologic mapping and the streamgage network benefited in FY 2001 from funds provided under Title VIII of the FY 2001 Interior appropriations bill, which authorized a six-year Land Conservation, Preservation, and Infrastructure program. This program distributes royalties collected from offshore oil and gas activities. Finally, the USGS is transferring the bureau's library from the Facilities account to the Science Support account. According to USGS budget officials, the transfer was funding neutral. This new initiative builds on the Clinton Administration's Power Plant Improvement Initiative that began last year.