Volume 7, Number 22
May 15, 2013
Editor: Mark V. Sykes
Co-Editors: Melissa Lane, Susan Benecchi
Email: pen_editor at psi.edu
o---------------------SPECIAL REPORT AND ANALYSIS---------------------o
NASA OPERATING PLAN FOR FY2013 TO TARGET PLANETARY OVERALL, CUTS
RESEARCH AND COMPETED MISSIONS
CALL TO ACTION: CONGRESSIONAL HELP IS NEEDED, AND CALL NASA TO TASK
Mark V. Sykes
Planetary Science Institute
In his FY13 budget request, President Obama proposed the NASA Planetary
budget be cut by more than 20% from its FY12 level (From $1.5B to less
than $1.2B). Under the initial Continuing Resolutions covering the
first half of the fiscal year, the Administration chose to operate NASA
Planetary at this reduced level. Congress restored more than $222M of
the President's cut in its FY13 appropriation passed on March 21 and
signed into law by the President. Congress's action is now being
reversed by NASA and others in the Administration through the
preferential application of rescission and sequestration cuts of more
than 15% to the NASA Planetary Science budget.
When Congress allocated additional funds, it also specified how they
were to be spent in support of Planetary Science Research, Discovery,
New Frontiers, Mars Exploration (including MAVEN, MSL, and other Mars
activities including a future mission), and Outer Planets (including
studies in support of a future Europa mission). Under section 505 of
the law, no project can be eliminated or changed by more than 10%,
unless House and Senate Committees on Appropriations are notified 15
days in advance. That means that if NASA decides the political
consequences are minimal, it can pretty much do what it wants as long
as notice is given - and that is what is happening.
After removing essentially all of funds added by Congress to Planetary
Science, NASA and and others in the Administration have further chosen
to reallocate significant funds from present planetary research and
Discovery budgets to pay for new studies in support of a future Europa
mission. The next Discovery call will certainly be delayed. The impact
to research programs will be severe - further reduced selection rates
can be anticipated. Might existing awards be retroactively reduced?
Damage is made worse by the fact that these cuts are being implemented
in the final months of the fiscal year.
Congress does not compel this action. This is a policy choice of NASA
and others in the Obama Administration.
The Operating Plan has yet to be submitted to Congressional Committees
on Appropriations. It was due on May 10th. I have obtained detailed
information on its content from several source documents that
collectively reveal a fairly stable state of development with very
small tweaks in recent weeks.
A summary of the Operating Plan and its effects are given in the table
below. Each row corresponds to a budget line given in the FY13 budget
bill passed by Congress on March 21. Lunar Quest and Technology were
not specifically called out (hence the brackets).
FY13P = President's proposed budget for fiscal 2013 (the breakdown of
Outer Planets in the President's FY13 budget proposal is
inferred from information in the proposed Operating Plan).
This is the budget under which NASA Planetary Science has
been operating since October 1, 2012.
OP = Operating Plan for fiscal 2013, with rescission and
sequestration applied, to be submitted to Congress
Delta = OP - FY13P
Cong = Appropriated budget signed into law (without rescission and
sequestration)
%Cong = Percentage change in appropriated budget proposed by NASA
Operating Plan including rescission and sequestration
Note: All numbers are in $millions. At this point, I expect only small
adjustments prior to the submission of the Operating Plan to Congress.
My apology for any scrivener's errors.
Note: DELTA IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT, because it indicates the amount
of funding being removed or added to the current budget by the
operating plan. A negative indicates funding that must be removed from
a program over the next four months (the end of the current fiscal
year).
Note: I understand that the apparent MAVEN reduction is not a cut. It
reflects the timing of expenses. These funds continue to be book-kept
within Mars exploration with little change to the overall current
budget level - though Congress directed a major increase, which has
been removed.
FY13P OP Delta Cong %Cong
PLANETARY SCIENCE 1192.3 1196.0 +3.7 1415.0 -15.5
Planetary Science Research 188.5 174.5 -14.0 192.0 -9.1
Discovery 189.6 162.9 -26.7 244.0 -33.2
New Frontiers 175.0 162.7 -12.3 175.0 -7.0
Mars Exploration 360.8 357.6 -3.2 450.8 -20.7
- MAVEN 146.4 127.4 -19.0 146.4 -13.0
- MSL 65.0 63.8 -1.2 65.0 -1.8
- Other Mars Activities 149.4 166.4 +17.0 239.4 -30.5
Outer Planets 84.0 147.8 +63.8 159.0 -7.0
- Europa (OP Flagship) [ 3.0] 69.7 +66.7 75.0 -7.1
- [Other OP Activities] [ 81.0] 78.1 -2.9
[Lunar Quest] 61.5 67.0 +5.5
[Technology] 132.9 123.4 -9.5
CONGRESS SHOULD GIVE NASA SPECIFIC DIRECTION FOR A REVISED OPERATING
PLAN
(1) Rescission and sequestration should not be preferentially applied
to NASA Planetary Science and should not exceed 8%.
(2) Cuts should not result in any Planetary budget line being reduced
below the President's FY13 budget request, under which the Planetary
Science Division has been operating since the beginning of the fiscal
year.
(3) Priority should be given to stabilizing research and data analysis
programs and improving their selection rates, as well as advancing the
date of the next Discovery call.
CONTINUING EVERY LINE AT OR ABOVE THEIR CURRENT FUNDING LEVEL WOULD BE
CONSISTENT WITH THE LAW.
This would avoid further damage to existing programs (beyond that
already suffered in the first half of the fiscal year) while allowing
augmented activities to realize benefit from funds remaining above the
President's budget request after rescission and sequestration is
applied to the higher budget that was passed by Congress and signed
into law.
The planetary community did a great job convincing Congress of the need
to take the action it did. There was large support from both Senate and
House, Republicans and Democrats. We need once more to engage our
elected representatives to preserve what has been a crown jewel of
American initiative and achievement - the US solar system exploration
program.
Contact the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate
Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science and
Related Agencies and tell them that a 15% reduction of the FY13 NASA
Planetary budget and the damaging reallocation of resources across
that budget after reductions is not acceptable. Contact your
Representative and Senators and ask them to add their voice to yours
in these requests.
The Subcommittee chairs are:
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Chair)
202-224-5202 (Subcommittee #)
202-224-8858 (Mikulski FAX)
senator@mikulski.senate.gov
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ranking Member)
202-224-5202 (Subcommittee #)
202-224-3416 (Shelby FAX)
senator@shelby.senate.gov
Rep. Frank Wolf (Chair)
202-225-3351 (Subcommittee #)
202-225-1808 (Subcommittee FAX)
frank@wolfforcongress.com
Rep. Chaka Fattah (Ranking Member)
202-225-3351 (Subcommittee #)
202-225-1808 (Subcommittee FAX)
chaka.fattah@mail.house.gov
Other members of the Senate subcommittee may be found at:
http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/sc-commerce.cfm
Other members of the House subcommittee may be found at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/about/members
/commercejusticescience.htm
It has been suggested to me by Congressional staff that comments
should also be directed to NASA.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
charles.bolden@nasa.gov
202-358-1010
Associate Administrator for Space Science John Grunsfeld
john.m.grunsfeld@nasa.gov
202-258-3889
This operating plan has yet to be submitted to Congress. In
anticipation that whatever is sent will see the bright light of day,
I hope that NASA and the rest of the Administration will reconsider
their current plans and make rational modifications consistent with
the above.
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