A new proposed federal budget from the U.S. House of Representatives would likely spare iconic research labs in Boulder but still leave a deep gash in funding.
On Monday, the House appropriations committee unveiled a budget draft that would slash more than $387 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. That’s about 6% of NOAA’s current budget. The agency would have nearly $5.8 billion for the next fiscal year.
That’s a significantly shallower cut than President Donald Trump’s 25% proposal, which included eliminating four NOAA labs in Boulder — the Chemical Sciences Laboratory, the Global Monitoring Laboratory, the Physical Sciences Laboratory and the Global Systems Laboratory. It also included the elimination of a NOAA partner program with CU Boulder. Those labs have come to help define the city’s cultural pride in intellectual pursuits.
John Tayer, CEO of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, said that the reduced cuts indicates that some federal leadership recognizes NOAA’s importance.
“We’re going to continue to be vigilant to make sure that we share the message of the importance not just to Boulder but our entire nation,” Tayer said. “We should always make sure we’re educating the public and elected leadership in the importance of science.”
Last Saturday, Tayer joined U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse; Dan Powers, CEO of the research institute CO-LABS; and two former NOAA employees for a panel presentation on the agency’s importance at the Boulder Public Library.
“Over the course of the last seven months, science and our federal laboratories across the country have been under attack by this administration,” Neguse, a Democrat who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, told the crowd gathered on Saturday. Neguse added that Trump’s initial request was, “just the latest volley in that battle.”
The new budget draft does not appear to target Boulder’s labs specifically. It also includes an approximate 6% decrease in funding for NOAA operations, research and facilities and an approximate 7% decrease in funding for NOAA procurement acquisition and construction.
The National Science Foundation would lose 23% of its funding, about $2.06 billion. The National Science Foundation funds the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR. It’s unclear how that cut in funding would impact Boulder’s NCAR laboratory.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, also may lose 20%, or about $12 million, of its funding from the federal government. Boulder’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences falls under the NTIA umbrella.
The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1, though there is no hard deadline for Congress to pass the proposed budget. Once a budget is passed by Congress, the president has 10 days to approve it.
