Bush Budget Will Cut NOAA Climate, Weather, Fishery R&D By 11.7%

[hatrack]

EDIT

"The House would also cut NOAA R&D by a steep $72 million or 11.7 percent, for a total of $545 million (see Table). The budget request would have reduced NOAA R&D by a more modest 1.1 percent. Working within tight budget constraints in the overall bill, House appropriators would cut most core NOAA programs but would also refrain from the usual practice of handing out congressional earmarks. In Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the R&D portfolio would fall 14.7 percent down to $278 million, mostly because of the elimination of FY 2004 congressional earmarks but also from House cuts below the requested funding levels. NOAA’s climate research program would stay even at $170 million. Weather and air quality research would fall steeply from $55 million to $34 million because of deleted earmarks and the elimination of the US Weather Research Program. Funding for the National Sea Grant College Program would decline from $62 million down to $60 million. Begun in 1966, Sea Grant provides research grants to more than 200 universities to gain better understanding of marine life and marine resources through education, outreach, and technology transfer. R&D in NOAA’s other divisions would also decline, such as the National Ocean Service (NOS), whose portfolio of oceanographic research would fall 22.5 percent to $33 million. There would be across-the-board cuts in the fisheries and resources management research programs of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), resulting in a 15.4 percent cut in NMFS R&D activities down to $103 million."

EDIT

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/doc05h.htm

[oscar111]

1. "only army, courts, treasury" Nobelist Friedman and RW real goal for our

government.

Nothing else. Zero welfare, ss, pothole repair, cops, college aid, etc.

Get that straight, and you will not be shocked by these endless cuts.

No cops? The wealthy can hire private patrol cars. Already do. ditto detectives and bodyguards. Dont need cops. NYC in early days, i read , one had to pay for cop assistance each time.

MIlton Friedman.. Chicago U star. Nobelist. Archetiet of Chile under Pinochet, and lover of old hong kong's low taxes. Hero to the RW. The shame of Chicago U.

[leftyandproud]

2. cops, roads, colleges...all state government

Even the most wacky r/wingers want those things...They just don't want the feds controlling them all. That's my understanding from talking to relatives.

[htuttle]

5. Then they're going to be disappointed, I guess

[alarimer]

3. Fish populations are in decline everywhere

We can't afford to cut these budgets. I hate this administration.

[Catbird]

4. NOAA Loses Funding to Gather Long-Term Climate Data

From Science 14 January 2005
Jeffrey Mervis

Congress has eliminated funding for a fledgling network of 110 observation stations intended to provide a definitive, long-term climate record for the United States.

<snip>

To Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the message from legislators is even bleaker. "It's almost as if some people don't want to know how the climate is changing," he says. "Maybe they prefer uncertainty, so that they can avoid taking action."

Science is at http://www.sciencemag.org. Access is very limited unless you have a subscription. It is published by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), source of the original post in this thread.

[midnight armadillo]

6. Payback is a bitch

The scientific community has been very vocal in their criticisms of the Bush admin's track record on science, and they (we) also worked hard to get Kerry elected.

Now, since loyalty is the only value that matters in Bush's Bizarro World, it's payback time for the treasonous scientists...the 3% cut in the NSF budget is turning into 15% cut for grants, according to a prof I know who is on a grants board for them due to fixed costs at the NSF.