NASA Appropriations and Authorizations: A Fact Sheet

May 16, 2018 (R43419)

Congressional deliberations about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often focus on the availability of funding. This fact sheet provides data on past, current, and proposed NASA appropriations. No bills have yet been introduced in the 115th Congress proposing future-year authorizations of NASA appropriations.

Additional information on appropriations legislation affecting NASA is provided in CRS Report R44877, Overview of FY2018 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) and similar reports for prior years.1 NASA issues of congressional interest are discussed further in CRS Report R43144, NASA: Issues for Authorization, Appropriations, and Oversight in the 114th Congress.

Table 1 shows appropriations for NASA from FY2013 through FY2018. The data for FY2013 through FY2017 include supplemental appropriations, rescissions, transfers, reprogramming, and, in the case of FY2013, sequestration. They are taken from NASA's congressional budget justifications for FY2015 through FY2019.2 Congressional budget justifications are available on the NASA budget website (http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/) for the current year and for past years back to FY2002. The table data for FY2018 are as enacted by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-141). For amounts not specified in that act, see pages H2094-H2096 of the explanatory statement, published in the Congressional Record on March 22, 2018.

The Trump Administration's budget request for FY2019 adopted a new account structure for NASA. It presented FY2017 amounts adjusted for comparability with the new structure, but not FY2018 enacted amounts, because final FY2018 appropriations had not yet been enacted at the time the FY2019 budget was released. Table 2 shows FY2017 appropriations, adjusted for comparability; the Administration's request for FY2019; FY2019 amounts contained in the House Committee on Appropriations committee print dated May 7, 2018, and accompanying draft report; and FY2019 amounts that would be authorized by the NASA Authorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 5503) as ordered reported by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on April 17, 2018. Additional columns will be added to this table as Congress acts on FY2019 authorization and appropriations legislation for NASA.

Figure 1 shows NASA's total annual budget authority from the agency's establishment in FY1958 to FY2018, in both current dollars and inflation-adjusted FY2018 dollars.

Table 1. NASA Appropriations, FY2013-FY2018

(budget authority in $ millions)

 

FY2013

FY2014

FY2015

FY2016

FY2017

FY2018

Science

$4,782

$5,148

$5,243

$5,584

$5,762

$6,222

Earth Science

1,659

1,825

1,784

1,927

1,908

1,921

Planetary Science

1,275

1,346

1,447

1,628

1,828

2,228

Astrophysics

617

678

731

762

783

850

James Webb Space Telescope

628

658

645

620

569

534

Heliophysics

603

641

636

647

675

689

Aeronautics

530

566

642

634

656

685

Space Technology

615

576

600

686

687

760

Exploration

3,706

4,113

3,543

3,996

4,324

4,790

Exploration Systems Development

2,884

3,115

3,212

3,641

3,929

4,395

Orion

1,114

1,197

1,190

1,270

1,330

1,350

Space Launch System

1,415

1,600

1,679

1,972

2,127

2,150

Exploration Ground Systems

355

318

343

399

472

895

Commercial Spaceflight

525

696

a

a

a

a

Exploration R&D

297

302

331

355

395

395

Space Operations

3,725

3,774

4,626

5,032

4,943

4,752

Space Shuttle

39

0

8

5

0

0

International Space Station

2,776

2,964

1,525

1,436

1,451

n/s

Space Transportation

b

b

2,254

2,668

2,589

n/s

Space and Flight Support

910

810

839

923

903

n/s

Education

116

117

119

115

100

100

Space Grant

37

40

40

40

40

40

EPSCoR

17

18

18

18

18

18

MUREP

28

30

32

32

32

32

Other

34

29

29

25

10

10

Safety, Security, and Mission Services

2,711

2,793

2,755

2,772

2,769

2,827

Construction and EC&R

661c

522

446

427

485d

562

Inspector General

35

38

37

37

38

39

Total

16,879c

17,647

18,010

19,285

19,762d

20,736

Sources: FY2013-FY2017 from NASA FY2015-FY2019 congressional budget justifications. FY2018 from P.L. 115-141 and explanatory statement, Congressional Record, March 22, 2018, pp. H2094-H2096. See text for details.

Notes: Some totals may not add because of rounding. R&D = Research and Development. EPSCoR = Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. MUREP = Minority University Research and Education Program. EC&R = Environmental Compliance and Remediation. n/s = not specified.

a. Included in Space Transportation under Space Operations.

b. Commercial Crew funded under Exploration. Remainder of Space Transportation included in International Space Station.

c. Includes $14 million (after sequestration) of supplemental funding from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-2) that is not shown in the NASA FY2015 congressional budget justification.

d. Includes $109 million in emergency funding from Sec. 540 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-31) that is not shown in the NASA FY2019 congressional budget justification.

Table 2. NASA Appropriations and Authorizations, FY2019

(budget authority in $ millions)

 

FY2017
Comparable

FY2019 Appropriations

FY2019 Auth.

 

 

Request

H. Cmte.

Senate

Enacted

H. Cmte.

Science

$5,762

$5,895

$6,681

 

 

$6,624

Earth Science

1,908

1,784

1,900

 

 

1,921

Planetary Science

1,828

2,235

2,759

 

 

2,637

Astrophysics

1,352

1,185

1,029

 

 

1,375

James Webb Space Telescope

a

a

305

 

 

Heliophysics

675

691

689

 

 

691

Aeronautics

656

634

715

 

 

685

Exploration Research and Technologyb

827

1,003

900

 

 

1,018

Deep Space Exploration Systemsc

4,184

4,559

5,084

 

 

4,929

Exploration Systems Development

3,929

3,670

4,045

 

 

4,040

Orion

1,330

1,164

1,350

 

 

1,350

Space Launch System

2,127

2,078

2,150

 

 

2,150

Exploration Ground Systems

472

428

545

 

 

540

Advanced Exploration Systems

98

889

1,039

 

 

889

Exploration R&D

157

 

 

LEO and Spaceflight Operations

4,943

4,625

4,625

 

 

4,625

International Space Station

1,451

1,462

n/s

 

 

1,462

Space Transportation

2,589

2,109

n/s

 

 

2,109

Space and Flight Support

903

904

n/s

 

 

904

Commercial LEO Development

150

150

 

 

150

Education

100

0

90

 

 

108

Space Grant

40

0

40

 

 

48

EPSCoR

18

0

18

 

 

18

MUREP

32

0

32

 

 

n/s

Other

10

0

0

 

 

n/s

Safety, Security, and Mission Services

2,769

2,750

2,850

 

 

2,750

Construction and EC&R

485d

388

562

 

 

438

Inspector General

38

39

39

 

 

39

Total

19,762d

19,892

21,546

 

 

21,215

Sources: FY2019 NASA congressional budget justification and P.L. 115-31; House Committee on Appropriations committee print, May 7, 2018, and accompanying draft report; and H.R. 5503 as ordered reported by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. See text for details.

Notes: Some totals may not add because of rounding. For account structure changes, see table notes and discussion in text. R&D = Research and Development. LEO = Low Earth Orbit. EPSCoR = Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. MUREP = Minority University Research and Education Program. EC&R = Environmental Compliance and Remediation. n/s = not specified.

a. $569 million in Astrophysics in FY2017. $305 million in Astrophysics in FY2019 request.

b. Formerly Space Technology, plus elements formerly in Exploration.

c. Formerly Exploration, minus elements now in Exploration Research and Technology.

d. Includes $109 million in emergency funding from Sec. 540 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-31) that is not shown in the NASA FY2019 congressional budget justification.

Figure 1. NASA Funding, FY1958-FY2018

Source: Compiled by CRS. FY1958-FY2008 from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Aeronautics and Space Report of the President: Fiscal Year 2008 Activities, http://history.nasa.gov/presrep2008.pdf, Table D-1A. FY2009-FY2012 from NASA congressional budget justifications, FY2011-FY2014. FY2013-FY2018 as in Table 1. Current dollars deflated to FY2018 dollars using GDP (chained) price index from President's budget for FY2019, Historical Table 10.1, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/hist10z1-fy2019.xlsx.

Note: Transition quarter between FY1976 and FY1977 not shown.

Author Contact Information

[author name scrubbed], Specialist in Science and Technology Policy ([email address scrubbed], [phone number scrubbed])

Footnotes

1.

See, for example, CRS Report R44409, Overview of FY2017 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS); CRS Report R43918, Overview of FY2016 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS); CRS Report R43509, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations, CRS Report R43080, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: FY2014 Appropriations; CRS Report R42440, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: FY2013 Appropriations.

2.

FY2016 and FY2017 Education amounts are not shown in the FY2018 and FY2019 congressional budget justifications and are instead taken from the explanatory statement for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113), Congressional Record, December 17, 2015, pp. H9741-H9743, and the explanatory statement for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-31), Congressional Record, May 3, 2017, pp. H3374-H3375.