To Members of the NASULGC System:

House Makes 302(b) Allocations
The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), announced the
302(b) allocations to the House subcommittees earlier today. As expected, the allocations favored defense and homeland security over domestic programs. Although several of the non-defense and non-homeland security subcommittees suffered cuts, the Agriculture Subcommittee received the same allocation as last year: $16.832 billion.

Link:  http://www.nasulgc-bac.com/documents/FY2006/House_302b.pdf

Appropriations Markups Begin
Two House Appropriations Subcommittees -- Homeland Security and Interior -- met yesterday and approved F.Y. 2006 spending bills for the departments and agencies under their jurisdiction. (The Agriculture Subcommittee remains on track to markup its bill on May 17.) Both bills will be presented to the full House Appropriations Committee on May 10 and detailed information will not be made public until then. However, we have been able to ascertain the following:

1. Department of Homeland Security. The DHS appropriations bill will include continued funding for the University-Based Centers of Excellence. In each of the last two fiscal years, Congress funded this program at $70 million. However, the DHS has a "carry-over" balance of about $45 million. Thus, the House DHS Appropriations Subcommittee set the F.Y. 2006 funding level at the $63.6 million level recommended in the President's Budget Request.

Link: http://www.nasulgc-bac.com/documents/FY2006/House_DHS.pdf

2. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to its DHS and CSREES requests, the NASULGC system requested continued funding in the EPA budget for the "Pesticide Safety Education Program" administered through the Cooperative Extension System. The House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee agreed to this request and provided $1.2 million for PSEP.

3. U.S. Forest Service. The NASULGC system also supported a request put forward by the The National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges (NAPFSC) to "provide $10 million for a competitive forest and natural resources research grant program to support public and private forests and forest-dependent communities and a $5 million increase in research committed to cooperative agreements with universities." Although the Interior Committee did increase USFS research funding by $2.4 million, all of this amount appears to be earmarked for specific projects.

Fred H. Hutchison
Fleishman Hillard Government Relations