Report from Washington, D.C.


Fiscal Year 2014 Federal Budget Update Report

Written by: developer

On Jan. 17, President Obama signed the $1.012 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 omnibus spending bill into law. The omnibus funds the entire Federal government including NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD).

NASA was appropriated an overall budget of $17.646 billion for FY 2014. This is an increase of $781 million above NASA’s FY 2013 sequestered budget of $16.865 billion. A few highlights from NASA’s budget include:

  • Congress has shown opposition to the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) throughout the year. However, rather than cancel the effort, Congress has given NASA an opportunity to complete the significant preliminary activities “needed to appropriately lay the groundwork for the ARM prior to NASA and Congress making a long-term commitment to [the ARM] mission concept.”
  • Planetary Science was appropriated $128 million increase over the President’s FY 2014 request for Planetary Science. In addition, Congress provides $80 million to continue work on a Jupiter Europa mission.
  • The Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle was appropriated $1.6 billion in FY 2014; $225 million above the President’s FY 2014 request for SLS.
  • Orion capsule was appropriated $1.2 billion in FY 2014; $170 million above the President’s FY 2014 request for Orion.
  • Commercial Crew was appropriated $696 million in FY 2014; $125 million below the President’s FY 2014 request, but $171 million above its FY 2013 budget.
  • Education was appropriated $116 million in FY 2014, $22 million above the President’s request in FY 2014.
  • Launch indemnification authority was extended for 3 years.

NOAA was appropriated $1.893 billion for its satellite acquisition in FY 2014; $80 million below President Obama’s request. A few highlights from NOAA’s budget include:

  • Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) weather satellite program was appropriated President Obama’s full FY 2014 request of $954 million.
  • Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) was appropriated President Obama’s full FY 2014 request of $824 million.

The DoD was appropriated $487 billion in base funding for FY 2014; $20 billion above the FY 2014 budget it would have had under sequestration. This is about the same level of base funding DoD was operating under for FY 2013. However, it is some $30 billion below the President’s FY 2014 request for DoD base funding. A few highlights from DoD’s budget include:

  • Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program was appropriated $1.512 billion in FY 2014. The omnibus shows $365 million in savings in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) launch line in FY 2014. These savings reflect the combined effort by the Air Force and the contractor community in the recently finalized procurement of a block buy of 35 EELV vehicles to lower launch cost by billions over the next few years.
  • Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office was appropriated $10 million for FY 2014; $10 million above the President Obama’s budget request.

To read the Space Foundation’s full budget analysis for NASA, NOAA and DoD, please click here.

This article is part of Space Watch: February 2014 (Volume: 13, Issue: 2).


Posted in Report from Washington, D.C.