On Monday, the White House released final details on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget request to Congress. The release marks the official beginning of the FY20 appropriations process on Capitol Hill, which will play out over the next several months. A President’s Budget Request (PBR) simply reveals the spending and policy priorities of an administration. Congress ultimately decides specific allocations for federal agencies and programs, after hearings with agency heads and input from constituents. The FSU Office of Federal Relations is currently working with its counterparts in the State University System of FL as well as with the national higher education associations to send a unified message to Congress that the research and student aid line-items in the budget need to be given a high priority in the FY20 cycle.

As widely reported, over the last few days, the White House budget proposes significant reductions to agencies and programs of interest to the higher education community. Of particular note, the PBR includes:

• $7.1 billion for the National Science Foundation, a decrease of $975 million (-12%);
• $14.1 billion for Department of Defense Science & Technology, a decrease of $1.9 billion (-12%);
• $3.6 billion for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an increase of $124 million (+3.6%);
• $5.5 billion for the Department of Energy Office of Science, a decrease of $1.1 billion (-16.5%);
• elimination of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy;
• $34.4 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a decrease of $4.7 billion (-12%);
• $6.3 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Science Mission Directorate, a decrease of $601 million (-8.7%);
• $463 million for the Environmental Protection Agency Office of S&T, a decrease of $243 million (-34.4%);
• elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities;
• elimination of the Regional Education Laboratories, a component of the Institute of Education Sciences;
• elimination of the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant that is currently provided by the Department of Education;
• $500 million for the Federal Work Study Program, a decrease of $630 million (-55.8%); and
• a Pell Grant maximum individual award of $6,195, same as current, rescinding $2 million in the program surplus that is held to provide future stability of the program. 

The allocations above are similar to those seen in the last two White House budget requests. During both appropriations cycles, Congress acted in a bipartisan fashion to maintain and in several cases increase support for research and student aid programs.

Within the above agency/program names, I have included hyperlinks to more detailed information from the budget request. The hyperlinks include helpful narratives of the intent behind each proposed allocation.  Additionally, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), of which FSU is a member, has a helpful chart that captures funding recommendations for the line-items above that the higher education community will advocate for with Congress. Please contact Jonathan Nurse if you have questions about the funding status of any federal agency, program or initiative.