The Senate reached agreement on the stimulus bill, paring it down to around $800 billion dollars. Two of the categories of items we value, education and science, were lopped out of the bill. One of the education cuts the Senate made for instance, was to slash $40 billion from state governments' education costs.
Talking Points Memo (TPM) obtained an early version of programs likely to be axed. Some departments lost 100% of the money originally allotted to them. Here's a couple of items the Senate considers not worth funding:
- $500,000,000 from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- $750,000,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- $1,402,000,000 from National Science Foundation (NSF)
- $427,000,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- $14,000,000 from DHS Cyber Security Research
- $5,185,000,000 Prevention and Wellness. $75M for smoking cessation, $400M for HIV testing, $60M for surveys, $1B for diabetes screening/detection, $870M for Pandemic Flu.
These cuts all have stories behind them, most of which we're not privy to. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), for instance, threatened to cut all NSF funding earlier this week. According to these initial cut proposals, it seems his threats materialized.
On the chopping block is NOAA, which is part of Commerce. NOAA is one of the departments that the "drown it in the bathtub" cabal always threatens to do away with. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who was chosen by Obama to lead the Department of Commerce, himself wanted to get rid of Commerce, however Gregg has always been highly supportive of NOAA, leading funding efforts for the agency.
Some of Congress's recent cut to the stimulus package make sense -- in a very macabre way. For instance once the Senate does away with:
- 1,000,000,000 from the DOE for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, and
- 4,500,000,000 from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) energy technology loan guarantee program, and emasculates other alternative energy programs aimed at energy efficiency and attenuating global warming.
Then we really won't be needing:
- $122,500,000 for the polar icebreakers and cutters. We'll just sail right through.
The Senate cleverly kills many birds with one stone.
Some of these cuts seem ill thought out, but there are still more negotiations to come. Hopefully our representatives will rally to restore some funding, or get critical items like science and education into different legislation.
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Update I : Many of these cuts were updated in negotiations in the Senate, and between the Senate and the House before the final bill was passed.
Update II 02/19: We updated the situation with science funding in "Science in the Stimulus Package, Part II"
