ACS responds to fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending package

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2017 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) welcomes the bipartisan cooperation that occurred in completing the Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) Omnibus Appropriations Act. ACS encourages congressional leadership and the Trump administration to continue to work together to provide strong and robust funding levels for scientific research in the FY2018 appropriations process.

Specifically, the FY2017 omnibus bill provided the following funding levels.      

• The Department of Energy’s Office of Science funded at $5.4 billion, 0.8 percent over FY2016
• The Environmental Protection Agency funded at $8.1 billion, 1.0 percent under FY2016
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology funded at $954 million, 1.0 percent under FY2016
• The National Institutes of Health funded at $34.1 billion, 6.2 percent over FY2016
• The National Science Foundation funded at $7.5 billion, 0.1 percent over FY2016

The FY2017 omnibus spending package also retained funding for the U.S. Chemical Safety & Hazard Board at $11 million and increased funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to $306 million, 5.2 percent over FY2016. Additionally, several programs at the Department of Education that are critical to educating the future science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce — such as the flexible spending grants for K-12 programs and Perkins/Career and Technical Education — received new or sustained funding.

The American Chemical Society is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.