Science in the spending bill

Science : Last night the US House of Representatives and Senate agreed upon a partial spending bill for fiscal year 2015. Science was not expected to face many funding challenges, and there were no major surprises regarding US research programs and organizations. The Department of Energy’s funding will remain at $5.1 billion and will continue to support ITER; however, funding for the project will be contingent upon progress made. NASA will see an increase of $364 million for a total of $18 billion overall. The space science division accounts for $94 million of the increase; its budget will rise to $5.245 billion. NSF will see a relatively large increase of 2.4%, to $7.344 billion, with major growth in the agency’s research directorates and education program; the agency also received funding for a planned move to a new facility. NIST’s budget will increase by $14 million to $864 million, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will get $126 million more than it received in 2014, for a total of $5.4 billion. Other projects funded directly include a safety study of Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage.