[mmaimcal]House and NSF

[Al Wootten]

As you know, the Senate approved FY2003 ALMA money.  Now the House has.

House Appropriators Recommend 12.8% Increase for NSF

House and Senate Appropriators have completed work on separate
versions of the legislation funding the National Science
Foundation for FY 2003.  While final resolution of next year's
budget was put off until at least the later part of November, the
numbers are very good news.  The House bill would boost the
foundation's budget by 12.8%, while the Senate bill calls for an
11.8% increase.  Of particular note in the House bill are
specified 15% increases for the Physics subactivity, the
Engineering Activity and the Geosciences Activity.  The committee
also rejected proposed program transfers to NSF, and included
extensive language about the Astronomical Sciences program.

The NSF-related language in the House committee report (107-740)
is extensive, and may be viewed in full at http://thomas.loc.gov/
What follows are the numbers for both the House and Senate
versions of the VA/HUD/Independent Agencies Appropriations bill,
and selected passages from the House report.  See FYI #89
(http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/2002/089.html)  for information on
the Senate bill.

TOTAL NSF BUDGET: The House bill provides an increase of $614.4
million, or 12.8%, to $5,422.94 million.  The Senate bill
provides an increase of 11.8%.
"Within the additional funds made available for the Mathematical
and Physical Sciences directorate, the Committee expects the
Foundation to allocate funds on a basis which provides a high
priority for astronomy, including individual investigator grants,
and sufficient resources to begin development of important new
projects recommended in a recent National Academy of Sciences
10-year plan for astronomical science activities.  In addition,
the Committee's recommendation for the Astronomical Sciences
activity includes $5,000,000 above the budget request for the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) program,  $4,300,000
above the budget request for the National Optical Astronomy
Observatories (NOAO), $2,000,000 above the budget request for the
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), and no less than
the budget request of $4,000,000 for the Telescope Systems
Instrumentation Program (TSIP). The Foundation is expected to
aggressively continue its program, begun in fiscal 2001, of
upgrading on a priority basis its  astronomical facilities and
equipment.

MAJOR RESEARCH FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT (MREFC):

"The Committee's recommendation includes the budget requests of
$9,720,000 for the Large Hadron Collider, $13,560,000 for the
George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering
Simulation, $30,000,000 for construction funding of the Atacama
Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) aperture-synthesis radio telescope,
and $6,000,000 for additional  construction requirements
necessary to meet enhanced capacity needs at  the new South Pole
Station.