Congress starts new session with two bills on science funding
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.0210088
Science : Congress returned to session on 6 September after its two-month summer break. Atop the agenda is passing a spending bill for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins 1 October. However, it is more likely that Congress will approve a continuing resolution to extend 2016 spending levels until late December, which will provide extra time for finalizing the 2017 spending bill. A continuing resolution effectively freezes the budgets of government agencies and prevents them from starting new projects or taking advantage of planned budget increases. Major funding increases were slated for a range of National Institutes of Health research programs, Zika research, a NASA mission to Jupiter’s moons, two new NSF research vessels, fusion research, and much more.