NASA Appropriations and Authorizations: A Fact Sheet

Updated January 8, 2019 (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 FY2019 NASA appropriations, as well as authorizations for FY2019 appropriations.

Additional information on appropriations legislation affecting NASA is provided in CRS Report R45237, Overview of FY2019 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), and similar reports for prior years.¹ See also CRS In Focus IF10940, The James Webb Space Telescope; CRS In Focus IF10828, The International Space Station (ISS) and the Administration's Proposal to End Direct NASA Funding by 2025; and the discussion of NASA's use of commercial space capabilities in CRS Report R45416, Commercial Space: Federal Regulation, Oversight, and Utilization.

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.

Table 2 shows FY2018 appropriations, as above; the Administration's request for FY2019; FY2019 amounts recommended in the 115^th Congress by the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations; FY2019 amounts that would be appropriated by H.R. 21 as passed by the House on January 4, 2019; and FY2019 amounts that would have been authorized by House and Senate authorization bills in the 115^th Congress. The Trump Administration's budget request for FY2019 adopted a new account structure for NASA. Proposed name changes are indicated in the table notes. In addition, the Administration proposed to transfer certain activities from the Deep Space Exploration Systems account (currently Exploration) to the Exploration Research and Technology account (currently Space Technology) so the amounts shown for those items represent somewhat different content in different columns.

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 Devel.	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, & Mission Svcs.	2,711	2,793	2,755	2,772	2,769	2,827
Construction and EC&R	661^c	522	446	427	485^d	562
Inspector General	35	38	37	37	38	39
Total	16,879^c	17,647	18,010	19,285	19,762^d	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)

	FY2018 Enacted	FY2019 Appropriations				FY2019 Auth.
		Request	House (115^th)	Senate (115^th)	H.R. 21	House (115^th)	Senate (115^th)
Science	$6,222	$5,895	$6,681	$6,400	$6,400	$6,624	$6,400
Earth Science	1,921	1,784	1,900	1,931	n/s	1,921	n/s
Planetary Science	2,228	2,235	2,759	2,202	n/s	2,637	n/s
Astrophysics	850	1,185	1,029	1,243	n/s	1,375	n/s
James Webb Space Telescope	534	—^a	305	305	n/s	—	n/s
Heliophysics	689	691	689	720	n/s	691	n/s
Aeronautics	685	634	715	725	725	685	725
Space Technology^b	760	1,003	900	933	933	1,018	1,003
Exploration^b	4,790	4,559	5,084	5,339	5,339	4,929	5,339
Exploration Systems Development	4,395	3,670	4,045	4,295	4,295	4,040	n/s
Orion	1,350	1,164	1,350	1,350	1,350	1,350	n/s
Space Launch System	2,150	2,078	2,150	2,150	2,150	2,150	n/s
Exploration Ground Systems	895	428	545	795	795	540	n/s
Exploration R&D^b	395	889	1,039	1,044	1,044	889	n/s
Space Operations^b	4,752	4,625	4,625	4,639	4,639	4,625	4,639
International Space Station	n/s	1,462	n/s	n/s	n/s	1,462	n/s
Space Transportation	n/s	2,109	n/s	2,109	n/s	2,109	n/s
Space and Flight Support	n/s	904	n/s	n/s	n/s	904	n/s
Commercial LEO Development	—	150	150	40	n/s	150	n/s
Education	100	0	90	110	110	108	100
Space Grant	40	0	40	44	44	40	n/s
EPSCoR	18	0	18	21	21	18	n/s
MUREP	32	0	32	33	n/s	n/s	n/s
Other	10	0	0	12	n/s	n/s	n/s
Safety, Security, and Mission Services	2,827	2,750	2,850	2,750	2,750	2,750	2,850
Construction and EC&R	562	388	562	388	388	438	451
Inspector General	39	39	39	39	39	39	39
Total	20,736	19,892	21,546	21,323	21,323	21,215	21,546

Sources: FY2018 from P.L. 115-141 and explanatory statement, Congressional Record, March 22, 2018, pp. H2094-H2096. Request from FY2019 NASA congressional budget justification. House (115^th Congress) from H.R. 5952 as reported and H.Rept. 115-704. Senate (115^th Congress) from S. 3072 as reported and S.Rept. 115-275. House authorization from H.R. 5503 (115^th Congress) as reported. Senate authorization from S. 3799 (115^th Congress) as introduced.

Notes: Some totals may not add because of rounding. 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. $305 million included in Astrophysics.

b. In request and 115^th Congress House bills, Space Technology is Exploration Research and Technology, Exploration is Deep Space Exploration Systems, Exploration R&D is Advanced Exploration Systems, and Space Operations is LEO and Spaceflight Operations. In S. 3072 (115^th Congress) and H.R. 21, Education is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Opportunities. See text for content variations.

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

See, for example, CRS Report R44877, Overview of FY2018 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS); 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.

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.