US Senate subcommittee increases energy science spending

Science : In a bill approved yesterday by the Senate appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, several science-related departments could receive funding increases in 2013, despite an overall budget cut of $373 million from fiscal year 2012. In the 2013 budget, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science would get $4.909 billion, an increase of 0.7% over current spending levels, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy would fare even better with an increase of 13% for a total of $312 million. ARPA–E is better supported in the Senate than in the House, which last week proposed cutting funding from the current level of $275 million to $200 million. Whereas the Democrat-controlled Senate praises ARPA–E for attracting private investment to energy-related issues, the Republican-controlled House maintains that private industry should be paying for much of what ARPA–E does.