The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Budget for FY2010
Released: 2010-01-26T00:00:00

Introduction

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the Department of Commerce, conducts scientific research in areas such as marine and coastal ecosystems, climate, and weather; supplies information on the oceans and atmosphere; and provides stewardship of coastal and marine species and environments. NOAA was created in 1970 by President Nixon's Reorganization Plan No. 4. The reorganization plan was designed to unify the nation's environmental activities and to provide a systematic approach for monitoring, analyzing, and protecting the environment. NOAA's administrative structure has evolved into five line offices that reflect its diverse mission, including the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), the National Weather Service (NWS), and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). In addition to NOAA's five line offices, Program Support (PS), a cross-cutting budget activity, supports the NOAA Education Program, Corporate Services, Facilities, and the Office of Marine and Aviation Services.

President Obama's FY2010 Budget

The FY2010 NOAA budget request of $4.474 billion accounted for nearly 33% of the Department of Commerce's total request of $13.779 billion. The request was $108.6 million (2.5%) more than the FY2009-enacted NOAA budget of $4.365 billion. The FY2010 budget included $3.091 billion for the Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) account, $1.391 billion for the Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC) account, and a net total of -$8.0 million for NOAA's Other Accounts. Table 1 provides FY2009 enacted, FY2010 Administration request, FY2010 House-passed, FY2010 Senate-passed, and FY2010 enacted funding levels for NOAA.

In most years, ORF and PAC accounts provide more than 98% of NOAA's budget request. Except for NESDIS, ORF provides the bulk of funding for NOAA line offices. NOAA's Other Accounts usually include an internal transfer from the Coastal Zone Management Fund to ORF, the Fisheries Finance Program, and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The Administration did not request funding for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, but instead requested $60 million to establish a species recovery grant program that would include Pacific salmon.

NOAA FY2010 Funding Proposal

Among the priorities of the FY2010 budget, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco stressed the general goal of supporting NOAA's core mission of environmental prediction and stewardship. General program areas addressed in her congressional testimony included satellite operations, fisheries management, climate change, coastal management, weather forecasting, and program support. Table 2 provides ORF and PAC funding of NOAA line offices.

National Ocean Service. The Administration's NOS budget request for ORF and PAC totaled $487.1 million, a decrease of $56.1 million from the FY2009 level of $543.2 million. ORF funding is cut by $34.3 million with decreases in Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment ($15.8 million), Navigation Services ($11.2 million), and Ocean and Coastal Management ($7.2 million). NOS PAC construction funding also would decrease by $21.8 million. Highlights of requested NOS program funding increases included:

$6.0 million for implementation of the ocean research priorities plan; $4.0 million for the national vertical datum to improve elevation and height information; $3.1 million to support the Coastal Zone Management Act; $2.7 million to improve forecasts of harmful algal blooms; and $1.4 million for response and restoration, $1.9 million for energy licensing, $1.0 million for Gulf of Mexico alliance, and $1.2 million to address the hydrographic survey backlog.

National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS is the lead federal agency responsible for stewardship of offshore living marine resources and their habitat. The Administration's NMFS total request was $890.6 million, an increase of $132.5 million from FY2009 appropriations. Highlights of requested NMFS program funding included:

$98.3 million, an increase of $56.5 million, to support the new requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act related to overfishing, stock assessments, enforcement, recreational data collection, and cooperative research programs; $40.9 million, an increase of $16.5 million, to fulfill the conservation and fair harvesting-sharing provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty; $39.9 million, an increase of $5.6 million, to support Endangered Species Act consultations; $47.4 million, an increase of $5.3 million, to conduct conservation and recovery actions and to reduce interactions between marine mammals and commercial fisheries; and increases of $2.0 million for aquaculture development and research and of $2.7 million to support research of climate regimes and ecosystem productivity.

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. The Administration request for OAR of $404.6 million decreased its budget by $3.7 million from the FY2009 level of $408.3 million. Highlights of requested OAR program funding increases included:

$12.9 million, an increase of $4.6 million for the National Integrated Drought Information System; $4.0 million to implement long-term monitoring of ocean acidification; and increases of $2.6 million for severe weather forecast improvements, $2.6 million for decadal climate predictions, $2.5 million for the national climate model portal, $2.0 million for weather research and forecasting, $1.3 million for the U.S. climate reference network, and $1.0 million for multi-function phased array radar.

National Weather Service. The Administration request for NWS of $963.9 million provided a net increase of $5.0 million to the FY2009 omnibus funding level of $958.9 million. Highlights of requested NWS funding included:

$17.0 million, an increase of $13.0 million, for hurricane forecast system improvements; $7.0 million for weather radar coverage of western Washington to improve analysis and prediction of winter storm systems; $24.4 million, an increase of $5.3 million for the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System to reduce the time required to generate and disseminate warnings; $11.4 million, an increase of $6.1 million, for the next generation air transportation system; and increases of $2.7 million for space weather forecast improvement, $2.2 million for the NOAA profiler network, and $1.3 million for weather radio improvement.

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Satellite operations were identified by the NOAA Administrator as one of the greatest challenges that the agency faces, and most of the overall agency funding increase would support NESDIS satellite programs. NESDIS acquires and manages environmental satellites and provides access to global environmental data. These data are used for weather forecasts, warnings of major weather events, environmental monitoring, climate investigations such as drought, climate change studies, and search and rescue. The Administration's NESDIS request for ORF and PAC totaled $1,428.6 million, an increase of $250.6 million. Highlights of requested NESDIS program funding included:

$873.2 million, an increase of $256.3 million from the FY2009 funding level, to continue the procurement of spacecraft, instruments, launch services, and ground systems equipment for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES); $382.2 million, an increase of $94.2 million from the FY2009 funding level, to support instrument and spacecraft development of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS); $20 million to fund NOAA's portion of the Jason-3 satellite mission that will provide continuity of sea surface height measurements for studies of ocean climatology and weather; and increases of $7.0 million for climate data records, $0.9 million for ice satellite imagery for navigation safety, and $2.0 million for NPOESS data exploration.

Program Support. The Administration request for PS of $424.7 million decreased funding by $108.0 million from the FY2009 PS budget of $532.7 million. PS funding decreased because of completion of construction and repair projects and cuts in the NOAA education program. Highlights of requested PS funding included:

$120.9 million, an increase of $6.1 million, for Corporate Services to support facilities and IT security compliance and to support acquisition and grants services; $30.3 million, an increase of $8.8 million, for facilities management and modernization to address facility deficiencies and repairs and to comply with legal requirements associated with property leases; $2.2 million to increase NOAA Corps from 299 to a total of 321 officers; and $3.0 million for the design of a shallow-draft fisheries survey vessel.

Congressional Action on Appropriations for NOAA

The House recommended funding of $4.603 billion for NOAA. This provided an increase of 5.5% compared with the FY2009-enacted funding level and a 2.9% increase over the Administration's request. Of the $4.603 billion recommended by the House, $3.202 billion was for ORF, $1.409 billion for PAC, and a net total of -$8.0 million for NOAA's Other Accounts. The House-passed version of H.R. 2847 added $500,000 to the Appropriations Committee's recommendation to support special fishery demonstration projects in the western Pacific.

The Senate recommended funding of $4.773 billion for NOAA. This represented an increase of 9.3% compared with the FY2009-enacted level and an increase of 6.7% over the Administration's request. Of the $4.773 billion passed by the Senate, $3.304 billion funded ORF, $1.398 billion funded PAC, and a net total of $71.0 million funded NOAA's Other Accounts.

On December 16, 2009, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 ( P.L. 111-117 ), which provides NOAA with $4.737 billion for FY2010. This represents an increase of 8.5% compared to the FY2009 enacted level and an increase of 5.9% over the Administration's request.

Comparison of FY2010 Funding Provisions

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 ( P.L. 111-117 ) increased funding for all five of NOAA's line offices, but decreased funding for PS. The greatest increases in the enacted bill were provided for NESDIS and NMFS. The Administration requested $1.429 billion for NESDIS, a 21.3% increase over the FY2009 appropriation of $1.178 billion. The House-passed version included $1.468 billion, while the Senate included $1.408 billion for NESDIS. The FY2010 enacted funding level for NESDIS is $1.399 billion, an increase of $220.5 million (18.7%) over the FY2009 enacted level. Most of the increases support satellite engineering development and production activities for the next generation geostationary satellite (GOES-R), and contribute to developing sensors and spacecraft for the tri-agency polar-orbiting satellite system (NPOESS). However, both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees expressed concerns with NPOESS management structure, projected cost growth, and schedule slippage

The Administration requested $890.6 million for NMFS, a 17.5 % increase over the FY2009 appropriation of $758.1 million. The House-passed version included $915.9 million, while the Senate included $872.4 million for NMFS. The FY2010 enacted funding level for NMFS is $904.5 million, an increase of $146.4 million (19.3%) over the FY2009 enacted level. Most of the increases were for support of fisheries management and endangered species recovery.

The Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), one of several funds in NOAA's Other Accounts category, was not funded in the President's budget. On May 21, 2009, the Obama Administration sent a budget amendment to Congress to clarify that Pacific salmon recovery was funded in the Administration request at $50 million under the new Species Recovery Grant Program in the NMFS Protected Species Office. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended restoring funding for the PCSRF under Other Accounts at the FY2009 funding level of $80 million while reducing the Species Recovery Grant Program by $50 million from the President's request of $61 million. The 2010 enacted funding level for PCSRF is $80 million.

NOAA Research and Development

NOAA's R&D efforts focus on three areas: climate; weather and air quality; and ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources. For FY2010, President Obama requested $568 million in R&D funding for NOAA. This was a 7% decrease from the FY2009 appropriation level of $611 million. R&D was nearly 13% of NOAA's total discretionary budget request of $4.474 billion. The R&D request consisted of approximately 93% research funding and 7% development funding. About 73% of the R&D request would fund intramural programs and 27% would fund extramural programs.

The OAR request of $305.9 million was nearly the same as the FY2009 OAR appropriation of $307.1 million and 53.9% of the total NOAA FY2010 R&D request. The President's budget also included $60.4 million for NOS R&D, a decrease of $2.1 million (3.4%) from the FY2009 level. NESDIS R&D decreased by $0.8 million (2.8%) to $27.6 million. NWS R&D funding decreased by $9.4 million (39.6%) to $14.3 million and OMAO funding fell to $104.0 million, a decrease of $35.0 million (25.1%). The Administration request expanded R&D funding for NMFS, proposing $55.4 million, an increase of $4.9 million (9.7%).

The NOAA FY2010 budget summary also broke down R&D funding according to ecosystems (32%) climate (31%), weather and water (14%), commerce and transportation (1%), and mission support (22%). R&D accomplishments highlighted by NOAA include upgrading the NOAA operation prediction system, developing fishery bycatch reduction devices, predicting harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes, integrating radar data to enhance weather forecasts and warnings, and implementing the soil moisture observational network.

FY2009 Stimulus Bill

On February 13, 2009, the 111 th Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 ( P.L. 111-5 ), also referred to as the stimulus package. ARRA provided $830 million to NOAA that will be used during FY2009 and FY2010. Only $500,000 of this funding (provided to NWS) was classified as R&D. The ORF account was funded at $230.0 million. Proposed ORF activities include reducing the hydrographic survey backlog, restoring marine and coastal habitat, and repairing and maintaining NOAA research vessels. The PAC account was funded at $600.0 million. Proposed PAC activities include constructing and maintaining facilities, ships, and equipment; improving weather forecasts; developing and deploying satellites; and enhancing climate models.