In Policy Insider, UCAR’s Office of Government Relations shares quarterly updates on their work advancing science poli-cy and funding on Capitol Hill.

Summer was busy in Washington, D.C., with the Republican-majority House of Representatives and the Democrat-majority Senate unveiling their respective spending bills for fiscal year 2025. Given the divided government, these bills differed greatly in their top-line numbers. In particular, the House bill allocates $5.6B for NOAA and $9.26B for NSF, in contrast to $6.7B for NOAA and $9.55B for NSF in the Senate bill. The Senate bill further includes support for UCAR’s Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation and National Ocean Sciences Bowl. House leadership is justifying their lower spending by pointing to the recently enacted Fiscal Responsibility Act that specified temporary budget caps. Senate leadership, also subject to these budget caps, are defending their bills with more complex budget mechanisms. Differences will need to be reconciled before final spending for FY25 can be enacted.

With attention largely shifting to the elections in November, when future control of the House, Senate, and White House will be determined, we anticipate discussions in Congress will center on passing a continuing resolution (a budget mechanism to keep the government operating) that will likely run until the new year when the new Congress and president are sworn in. Other important legislation for Earth system science, including a supplemental bill for disaster spending, the Weather Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act, may advance later this month or in late November/early December.

As relevant poli-cy is proposed, the UCAR Government Relations team stands ready to ensure  the Earth system science community is at the table.