H.R.4635: NASA’s Fiscal Year 2001 Budget

The conferees agree with the requirement of the Senate that NASA must articulate a comprehensive agenda and strategy through a strategic plan for each of NASA’s primary centers that links staffing, funding resources, mission activities and core competencies in a manner that will ensure each primary center will be vested with specific responsibilities and activities.Within each plan, NASA should identify where a center has or is expected to develop the same or similar expertise and capacity as another center, including the justification for this need. The plan should also include a specific 10-year profile of flight mission elements. This profile should identify the primary NASA center responsible for each flight’s mission management. The profile also should articulate clearly the criteria that is used and/or will be used to permit missions to be built intramurally, as well as the strategy for using industry and leading academic laboratories for mission development and execution. These plans are to be updated annually, with the first plan to be submitted to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate by July 31, 2001. For purposes of the foregoing reporting requirement, primary NASA centers shall include the nine centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory listed on page AS-21 of the fiscal year 2001 budget submission.

The conferees agree that information on the long-term consequences of reprogramming and operating plan actions should be made available to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate when requested. While the Senate had proposed making the information a requirement to be submitted with all reprogrammings and operating plans, the conferees recognize that this would be a burden on the agency when most of the changes are relatively minor in nature. The conferees expect NASA to be responsive whenever such an information request is made.

The conferees agree that NASA should report annually on the issue of safeguarding sensitive technology as proposed by the Senate.

The conferees agree that NASA should not be required to include an accounting of program reserves when addressing a program in the initial operating plan or subsequent operating plans. The conferees expect NASA to be able to provide this information when requested by the Committees on Appropriations.

The conferees have agreed to delete the general provision, proposed by the House which would have terminated all NASA-Air Force joint aeronautics and space-related research.

The conferees do not agree that NASA should conduct a joint study with the National Research Council and the National Academy of Public Administration on the research and analysis portions of NASA’s programs. The conferees urge NASA to take actions to ensure that research and analysis funding is sufficient to support the goals of the various programs.

Of the amounts approved in the following appropriations accounts, NASA must limit transfers of funds between programs and activities to not more than $500,000 without prior approval of the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate. Further, no changes may be made to any account or program element if it is construed to be policy or a change in policy. Any activity or program cited in this report shall be construed as the position of the conferees and should not be subject to reductions or reprogramming without prior approval of the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate. Finally, it is the intent of the conferees that all carryover funds in the various appropriations accounts are subject to the normal reprogramming requirements outlined above.

The conferees recognize that personnel management at an agency such as NASA is difficult and note that the Congress has provided authority in the past for NASA to offer incentives to employees as a way to reduce the agency’s overall workforce. The challenge NASA now faces is to ensure that the proper skill mix is in place at the various NASA Centers. To accomplish this task, NASA has proposed a continuation of its current buyout authority with modifications which allow the agency to retain the same number of full-time equivalent personnel, while offering incentives to achieve a workforce reduction in skill areas where an excess exists. The conferees agree to provide NASA with this authority for two years and have included the necessary statutory authority as a general provision of the bill.

The conferees agree to include the House provision on NASA full cost accounting instead of the Senate provision. The conferees remain concerned about the impact of full cost accounting on program and financial information that will be made available to the Congress through full cost accounting. If the program and financial information is determined to be inadequate, the conferees expect NASA to be able to address the concerns of the Congress. In addition, the conferees direct NASA to report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate on the status of any program or activity that has exceeded its budget plan by 15 percent. The report should be provided to the Committees within 15 days of the date on which NASA has determined that the budget overrun has occurred. This report shall include the reasons for the budget overrun including any proposals for the termination or restructuring of the program or activity and the related impact on the funding of other programs or activities.

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT

Appropriates $5,462,900,000 for Human Space Flight instead of $5,472,000,000 as proposed by the House and$5,400,000,000 as proposed by the Senate. The funding level arrived at for this account includes a reduction of$40,000,000 as proposed by NASA to provide additional funding for the Mars 2003 Lander program. This reduction includes $30,000,000 from shuttle reserves and $10,000,000 from the commercialization and technology program. Other adjustments follow.

The conferees recognize that NASA is obligated to ensure the well-being of astronauts, who will build the International Space Station (ISS), and live and work there for increasingly longer periods of time. On-orbit stay times beyond 90 days will require implementation of countermeasures against the negative effects of space flight. The basic research and countermeasure development will be done using the ISS crew members as research subjects. This requires establishment of medical baselines prior to flight, close monitoring of in-flight changes to the baseline, including the beneficial impacts of the countermeasures, and post-flight monitoring throughout the rehabilitation process. A key objective of NASA’s Bioastronautics Initiative is to re-focus existing NASA biomedical assets to accomplish this aim more effectively.

The conferees understand that NASA has determined that the most effective approach to ensuring synergy between a strong research program and necessary astronaut clinical care is to construct a Bioastronautics Facility at the Johnson Space Center. The facility will be sited at NASA’s Johnson Space Center because that is the living and working area of the astronaut corps and the medical support personnel. The facility will provide a necessary focal point for human health care delivery, research, and education for Space Medicine and Research. The research capabilities provided in this facility will be consistent with the NASA analysis of research requirements. This facility will enable access to all peer reviewed researchers, including universities across the country, NASA, NIH, and NSBRI, to carry out their science in a symbiotic laboratory setting and accomplish their goals.

The conferees agree to provide $3,000,000 to complete the facility design effort, and that a design/build approach is being baselined to ensure timely completion of the facility. The conferees further understand that initial construction funding could be required in fiscal year 2001 if the design is completed as planned by mid-2001, and direct NASA to submit an Operating Plan notification to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate at that time to identify construction funds within ISS resources.

The conferees agree that NASA should develop a 10-year plan for all research efforts related to the International Space Station, including operational needs as proposed by the Senate. NASA is directed to submit this report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate no later than April 15, 2001.

The conferees do not agree with the Senate requirement for a blueprint plan that identifies lead and complimentary universities that will coordinate with NASA for science disciplines that will be the focus of research after assembly of the ISS is complete. The conferees direct NASA to submit a plan to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate which includes various ISS management options. The conferees agree that such a plan will give the Congress the information it needs in order to determine what management structure is best and most able to deliver the benefits of the ISS. The Committees on Appropriations will require this information prior to approving funding for any final agreement. Therefore, the conferees have included an administrative provision which prohibits the expenditure of any funds prior to December 1, 2001for finalizing an agreement between NASA and a non government organization to conduct research utilization and commercialization management activities of the ISS.

For the past several years, the conferees have expressed dismay at the lack of dedicated life and microgravity research missions being flown on shuttle during station assembly. This problem is made worse by continuing delay in station assembly, leading to a significant backlog of critical research waiting to be flown. The conferees believe it is prudent to plan regular life and microgravity shuttle research missions during station assembly to protect the shuttle flight rate and to prepare experiments for the space station. The conferees therefore direct NASA, within 30 days of enactment of this Act, to submit a plan to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate which details a schedule for shuttle research missions, beginning after the flight of STS-107 and continuing until the space station reaches its full research capability.

SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS AND TECHNOLOGY

Appropriates $6,190,700,000 for science, aeronautics and technology instead of $5,579,600,000 as proposed by the House and $5,837,000,000 as proposed by the Senate. The amount provided is $261,300,000 above the budget request. The amount provided consists of:

$2,508,300,000 for space science.

$316,900,000 for life and microgravity sciences.

$1,498,050,000 for earth sciences.

$1,253,150,000 for aero-space technology.

$529,400,000 for space operations.

$134,000,000 for academic programs.

$49,100,000 as a general reduction.

In reaching the amount of $6,190,700,000 appropriated for science, aeronautics and technology, the conferees have included only $8,000,000 for space solar power, $20,000,000 for commercial remote sensing data buys, $20,000,000 for quiet aircraft technology, $10,000,000 for the EPSCoR program, and $19,100,000 for space grant colleges designated under section 208 of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Act.

The conferees recognize the efforts of NASA, particularly Goddard Space Flight Center, in developing comprehensive programmatic and operations plans for the Independent Verification and Validation Facility and in confirming the Facility’s agency-wide role in software reliability. The conferees further recognize NASA’s increased commitment to IV&V as a mission critical activity, as evidenced by the increase in funding (to $40,000,000 for fiscal year 2001) dedicated to IV&V activities. The conferees expect NASA to report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate by May 1,2001 regarding progress on development of the Facility, its role within NASA and the degree to which new and related software initiatives have been implemented. Space Science

The conferees have agreed to provide $2,508,300,000 for space science programs. Included in this amount is $75,000,000for the Mars 2003 Lander program as proposed by NASA in communications with the conferees subsequent to submission of the budget. Of this amount, $2,000,000 is to be financed within the space science account; $7,000,000 is to be derived from the life and microgravity account; $20,000,000 is to be derived from the aeronautics and space technology account; $6,000,000 is to be derived from the mission support account; and $40,000,000 is to be derived from the human space flight account.

Prior conference agreements have directed NASA to establish a goal of competitively selecting 75 percent of space science advanced technology funding. Based upon this direction, NASA recently released an open research announcement in the Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP) that resulted in an impressive response of over 1200proposals competing for $40,000,000 in funding. The conferees are aware that NASA was only able to award funding for 8percent of the proposals and that a 92 percent disapproval rate is frustrating to the university community and industry partners. In addition, the conferees note that NASA has expressed concern that the diversion of a high percentage of funds to open solicitations is contributing to a loss of needed `core competencies’ in technology at the NASA field centers. NASA, on the CETDP, is directed to allocate at least 75% of all new procurement awards through full and open competition. If NASA feels that additional funding is needed in fiscal year 2001 to address transitional core competency issues, then the agency may propose for the consideration by the Committees on Appropriations, a reprogramming of funds from other sources.

The conferees understand that the responsibility and funding for the CETDP is being transferred from the Office of Space Science to the Office of Aerospace Technology. Therefore, the conferees direct that NASA’s Office of Aerospace Technology submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate by April 30, 2001 which addresses how NASA plans to increase competitive selection of advanced technology funding while maintaining NASA Center core competencies. The report should identify the core competencies by NASA Center that are critical to the long-term future of the Nation’s space program and the level of resources required to ensure their support. The NASA core competency strategy should include long-term strategic alliances with universities and industry partners.

The conferees note that applying the recommendations of the Mars Program Independent Assessment Team to all space science programs may lead to cost increases for those programs. The conferees agree that NASA should provide a five-year profile of the costs associated with implementing these recommendations as part of the budget submission for fiscal year2002, as proposed by the Senate.

The conferees have provided the budget request of $20,000,000 for the Living with a Star program, as proposed by the Senate. The House had deleted the funding for this program because of concern about the contracting strategy being used by the program. The NASA Inspector General has reviewed the procurement strategy and the conferees are confident that NASA will take into consideration the recommendations of the Inspector General with regard to this program, as well as the recommendations of the Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA. The conferees agree with the direction of the Senate that NASA should submit a long-term plan to create a resilient Sun-Earth Connection program and that the report should be submitted by February 15, 2001.

The conferees agree that the cost of the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 should have a cost cap of $75,500,000 as proposed by the Senate. The conferees do not agree that cost increases associated with the Hubble Servicing Mission should be allocated to the Human Space Flight account. Instead, the conferees direct NASA to provide a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate on the policy for allocating cost increases which are associated with launch or payload delays and the rationale for the policy. The report should be provided no later that March 31, 2001.

The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:

1. An increase of $1,500,000 for Ohio Wesleyan University for infrastructure needs.

2. An increase of $1,500,000 for the Center for Space Sciences at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

3. An increase of $8,000,000 for space solar power.

4. An increase of $5,000,000 for the STEP-AirSEDS tether propulsion program.

5. An increase of $2,500,000 for the Hubble telescope project to initiate a Composites Technology Institute in Bridgeport, West Virginia.

6. An increase of $3,500,000 for a center on life in extreme thermal environments at Montana State University, Bozeman.

7. An increase of $2,500,000 for the Bishop Museum/Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center.

8. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Chabot Observatory and Science Center, Oakland, California.

9. An increase of $4,000,000 for the Green Bank Radio Astronomy Observatory visitor center.

10. An increase of $2,000,000 for equipment for the South Carolina State Museum’s Observatory, Planetarium and Theater.

11. An increase of $8,000,000 for the University of Hawaii for infrastructure needs of the Mauna Kea Education Center.

Life and Microgravity Sciences

The conferees agree to provide $316,900,000 for life and microgravity sciences. This amount includes a reduction of$7,000,000 from the biomedical research and countermeasures program which has been transferred to the space sciences account for the Mars 2003 Lander program. The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:

1. An increase of $5,000,000 for the Space Radiation program at Loma Linda University Hospital.

2. An increase of $1,000,000 to EARTH University and the University of Alabama in Birmingham to research Chagas disease.

3. An increase of $500,000 for ongoing research in the area of disease monitoring and diagnosis through the use of medical intelligence for the manned spaceflight effort.

4. An increase of $3,000,000 for the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center’s Modern Genetics project.

5. An increase of $15,000,000 for infrastructure needs for the Life Sciences building at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Earth Sciences

The conferees agree to provide $1,498,050,000 for the earth sciences account.

The conferees take seriously their responsibility to oversee the activities of the various Departments and Agencies and feel the direction provided by the Congress in the Statement of Managers accompanying the Conference Report for prior fiscal years should be implemented without fail. It has come to the attention of the conferees that this has not been the case with the implementation of direction contained in the fiscal year 2000 Appropriations Act and accompanying Statement of Managers. For this reason, the conferees agree with the Senate proposal to suspend the authority of the Office of Earth Science to reprogram any funds in fiscal year 2001 unless specifically authorized by the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate.

The conferees direct NASA to report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate, by March 15, 2001with a ten-year strategy and funding profile to extend the benefits of Earth science, technology and data results beyond the traditional science community and address practical, near-term problems. This strategy should incorporate fully the unique data, data products and services available from U.S. companies. NASA is also directed to develop, with universities, existing Applications Centers, such as ARCs and RESACs, NASA Field Centers, and other cognizant Federal agencies, mechanisms through which current public and private remote sensing and related technologies will be made readily available to state and local governments, public agencies and private organizations for applications in agriculture, flood mapping, forestry, environmental protection, urban planning and other land-use issues.

The Vegetation Canopy LIDAR Project (VCL), the first NASA Earth Systems Pathfinder Mission, is designed to provide a global database of forest structure and tree height. The conferees believe that this data will be invaluable as the scientific community continues research into global climate change and related areas. At the same time, the conferees recognize the valuable commercial potential of the data and the associated interest within the commercial sector. The conferees are concerned that if the VCL mission is not launched by 2002, the baseline data needed by the United States scientific and commercial community may be delayed or lost. Therefore, the conferees direct NASA to report by October 2001 on the progress of developing the VCL mission, with the expectation of a Spring 2002 launch date.

The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:

1. An increase of $500,000 for the Temporal Landscape Change Research Program to establish a regional baseline monitoring program.

2. An increase of $500,000 for the operations of the applications center for remote sensing at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Johnston, New York.

3. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research at George Mason University.

4. An increase of $5,000,000 for NASA’s Regional Applications Center for the Northeast.

5. An increase of $2,500,000 for the U.S. portion of the joint U.S./Italian satellite development program to remotely observe forest fires.

6. An increase of $450,000 for continuation of application remote sensing to forestry at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry.

7. An increase of $4,000,000 for the continuation of programs at the American Museum of Natural History.

8. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Advanced Tropical Remote Sensing Center of the National Center for Tropical Remote Sensing Applications and Resources at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

9. An increase of $8,800,000 to the Institute for Software Research, for the following activities: $5,000,000 for development and construction of research facilities; $2,300,000 for the development of a Goddard Institute for Systems, Software and Technology Research (GISSTR) in cooperation with the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Systems, Technology and Advanced Concepts (STAAC) organization; and $1,500,000 for a microcomputer clustering and data throughput/visualization algorithm research initiative.

10. An increase of $20,000,000 to continue commercial data purchases.

11. An increase of $3,000,000 for the University of South Mississippi for research into remotely sensed data for coastal zone management.

12. An increase of $1,000,000 for carbon cycle remote sensing technology at the KARS Regional Earth Sciences Applications Center at the University of Kansas.

13. An increase of $1,500,000 for the University of North Dakota to support the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium.

14. An increase of $1,500,000 for topographic sensor measurement efforts in Alaska.

15. An increase of $2,000,000 for remote ocean sensing research and measurements in the areas of the Bering Sea and the northernmost Pacific Ocean.

16. An increase of $500,000 for continued development of nickel metal hydride battery technology.

17. An increase of $3,000,000 for the NASA International Earth Observing System Natural Resource Training Center at the University of Montana, Missoula.

18. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Pipelines Project at Iowa State University/Southern University–Baton Rouge.

19. An increase of $35,000,000 for the Earth Observing System Data Information System, for a total fiscal year 2001program level of $277,000,000. These additional funds are for the EOSDIS Core System only so that its total program level in fiscal year 2001 shall be $115,000,000 allocated as follows: First, an additional $22,500,000 should be added to the coreECS program to provide optimized system functionality, planning for future growth and adaptations due to instrument team changes, provision for additional processing, and archival capabilities needed at the DAAC’s. Second, the remaining$12,500,000 is to continue and expand the Synergy program that was begun in fiscal year 2000. In fiscal year 2001, the conferees believe the Synergy program should focus on the following: continued development of the current applications to make them accessible to the general public; expansion of the number of info marts/data store fronts to broaden the application base and implementation of a unified access data server for local, State, and Federal agencies and the commercial marketplace. As part of this effort, NASA is directed to integrate the regional earth science applications centers into the Synergy program by the end of fiscal year 2001.

20. The conferees provided the full amount requested for the EOS follow-on. Within the amount provided, the conferees recommend: $1,500,000 for studies initiating a Landsat-7 follow-on commercial data purchase; $2,000,000 for the Global Precipitation Mission for phase A/B studies and preliminary advanced technology development work; $2,000,000 for the Global Earthquake Satellite for phase A/B studies and preliminary advanced technology development work; $1,500,000 for studies related to the `New DIS’ which the conferees believe should emphasize the re-use of the existing system in order to minimize future costs; $35,600,000 for studies and advanced technology development for the NPOESS preparatory project of which $4,000,000 shall be allocated for the development of high speed data processing and algorithm validation processes that maximize prior year investments in this area; and $2,000,000 to initiate a global wind profile commercial data purchase consistent with the science objectives identified in the National Academy of Sciences study.

Aero-Space Technology

The conferees agree to provide $1,253,150,000 for the aero-space technology account. Included in this amount is a reduction of $20,000,000 to the research and technology base with the funds transferred to the space sciences account for the Mars 2003 Lander program.

The conferees agree to provide the budget request of $9,000,000 for the small aircraft transportation system (SATS) as proposed by the Senate. The House had deleted funding for this effort. The House action was based upon limited funding available to NASA and an underlying concern that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was less than enthusiastic about the program which was not very well defined in the budget submission. Based upon new information provided to the conferees, funding for SATS has been restored to be used for operational evaluations, or proofs of concept where operational evaluations are not possible, of four new capabilities that promise to increase the safe and efficient capacity of the National Airspace System for all NAS users, and to extend reliable air service to smaller communities. These capabilities are:

High-volume operations at airports without control towers or terminal radar facilities.

Lower adverse weather landing minimums at minimally equipped landing facilities.

Integration of SATS aircraft into a higher en route capacity air traffic control system with complex flows and slower aircraft.

Improved single-pilot ability to function competently in complex airspace in an evolving NAS.

The conferees recognize that the expansion of the SATS is a technically high-risk program, and that the expansion of the SATS program to perform operational evaluations on all four capabilities will require additional resources. Therefore, the conferees direct the Administration to include such resources in the fiscal year 2002 budget request for NASA.

It is the expectation of the conferees that SATS will develop and operationally evaluate these four capabilities in a five-year program which will produce sufficient data to support FAA decisions to approve operational use of the capabilities, and FAA and industry decisions to invest in the necessary technologies. The conferees direct that not less than 75% of the funding provided for development of technologies shall be awarded subject to full and open competition. Collaborative industry/university teams are encouraged to compete for these awards. In addition, NASA is directed to transfer funds as required to the FAA for personnel with authority to set criteria and approve test plans.

The usefulness of the data for this purpose will be ensured through the following process:

1. In fiscal year 2001, NASA will plan SATS activities with, and secure the agreement of, FAA staff from aircraft certification, flight standards, air traffic, and airports before undertaking the proof of concept or operational evaluations. This will also be done with appropriate industry involvement.

2. The SATS plan will identify the operational safety criteria required by FAA for each capability, and test plans determined by FAA to be adequate to establish that these criteria are met.

3. The objective of SATS is that the output of the operational evaluation as defined in the plan will be sufficient for the FAA to give full credit to the test data when an applicant subsequently proposes the certification and operational approvals for a system that would implement these SATS capabilities.

NASA and FAA SATS program managers will keep the SATS Subcommittee, a joint subcommittee of NASA’s AeroSpace Technology Advisory Committee and FAA’s Research Engineering and Development Advisory Committee, fully informed of all planning activities. SATS program managers will seek specific advice on their plan from the Subcommittee and respond in writing to such advice. The Advisory Committees will request status reports from the SATS Subcommittee on the planning activities and their conformance to the above directions of the conferees and these reports shall also be provided to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate.

NASA is directed to provide a report the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate on the status of implementing this program with the first report to be submitted by July 31, 2001 and subsequent reports to be submitted on each March 31 thereafter.

The conferees agree to provide the budget request for the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) as proposed by the Senate. The conferees are in general agreement with the direction in the Senate report with regard to the key principles NASA should maintain throughout the life of the program, namely: (1) any launch vehicles developed fully will be owned and operated by private industry and be capable of competing effectively in the commercial marketplace; and (2) the program will rely on competition from existing and emerging launch service providers to ensure innovations, openness, and resiliency. Further, the conferees are in agreement that at least 75% of SLI funding should be subject to full and open competition and that all NASA Centers should be eligible to participate in the SLI program.

The conferees continue to support the Software Optimization and Reuse Technology (SORT) program, which will help NASA address the growing cost and schedule complexities associated with traditional one-at-a-time software development strategies. The conferees are aware of a recent independent assessment of SORT program efforts at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Information Systems Center (ISC), which confirmed the compatibility of GSFC/ISC goals with those of the SORT program. The report confirmed that the technologies proposed under the SORT program would promote improvements in productivity, quality, cost and schedule, but identified communication and management problems between the SORT program and NASA. The conferees fully support the transfer of SORT’s management to the GSFC/ISC, and expect the contents of the independent assessment to be integrated into a detailed plan for future SORT activities. The conferees direct GSFC/ISC to submit this plan to Congress no later than April 1, 2001.The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:

1. An increase of $13,000,000 for the Ultra Efficient Engine Technology program.

2. An increase of $2,000,000 for the development of eye tracking technology and applications research.

3. An increase of $500,000 for evaluation and design of Lithium-Ion batteries for use on space shuttles.

4. An increase of $3,000,000 for the NASA-Illinois Technology Commercialization Center at DuPage County Research Park.

7. An increase of $6,000,000 to expand the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program in the states of Florida, New Mexico, New York, and Texas.

8. An increase of $4,000,000 for deployment of multilateration and Mode-S based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast sensors for the Helicopter In-Flight Tracking System.

9. An increase of $1,800,000 to augment deployment of an ATIDS multilateration sensor and surveillance server for the Airport Surface Management System.

10. An increase of $1,600,000 for the continued development of the Dynamic Runway Occupancy Measurement System integration with the Multistatic Dependent Surveillance System and Sensor Bahn server.

11. An increase of $1,000,000 for the remote sensing SAID research program at Syracuse University.

12. An increase of $1,000,000 for Agile Collaboration Environments for Systems Synthesis in Engineering Education.

13. An increase of $1,000,000 for Enhanced Vision Systems development and testing.

14. An increase of $2,000,000 to continue work on SOCRATES.

15. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Center for Emerging Technologies at Stony Brook, State University of New York.

16. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative in Ohio.

17. An increase of $6,500,000 to the Institute for Software Research, for the following activities: $2,000,000 to perform fundamental research of propellantless space propulsion with NASA’s Center of Excellence for Space Propulsion, including the analysis of prototype radio frequency momentum sources and the use of automated tensor algorithms to simulate and evaluate prototype drive mechanisms; $3,500,000 to continue the Self-Adaptive Vehicular Equipment (SAVE) initiative; and$1,000,000 to continue the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) program.

18. An increase of $7,500,000 for completion of the National Space Science and Technology Center for infrastructure needs.

19. An increase of $2,000,000 for the Earth Alert project at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

20. An increase of $10,000,000 for a Propulsion Research Laboratory to be located at NASA’s Center of Excellence for Space Propulsion at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

21. An increase of $2,000,000 for Montana State University, Bozeman for research in advanced optoelectronic materials.

22. An increase of $1,000,000 for the University of Akron, for nanotechnology research.

23. An increase of $1,000,000 for aerospace projects at MSE Technology Applications in Butte, Montana.

24. An increase of $250,000 for the Oklahoma Aeronautics and Space Commission for sounding rockets.

25. An increase of $1,000,000 for Montana State University for the techlink program.

26. An increase of $500,000 for the National Aviation Hall of Fame for development of exhibits.

27. An increase of $1.500,000 for the National Technology Transfer Center, for a total of $7,300,000.

Space Operations

The conferees have provided $529,400,000 for space operations, the same amount as provided by both the House and Senate.

Academic Programs

The conferees have agreed to provide $134,000,000 for academic programs. The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:

1. An increase of $3,000,000 for continued academic and infrastructure needs related to the computer sciences, mathematics and physics building at the University of Redlands, Redlands, California.

2. An increase of $1,000,000 for equipment needs at the University of San Diego Science and Education Outreach Center.

3. An increase of $500,000 for Science, Engineering, Math and Aerospace Academy programs at Central Arizona College.

4. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Science Facilities Initiative at Heidelberg College in Ohio.

5. An increase of $1,000,000 for the NASA Glenn `Gateway to the Future: Ohio Pilot’ project.

6. An increase of $1,500,000 for the Santa Ana College Space Education Center in California.

7. An increase of $5,400,000 for the EPSCoR program for a total funding level of $10,000,000 in fiscal year 2001.

8. An increase of $9,100,000 for the Minority University Research and Education program for a total funding level of$55,000,000 in fiscal year 2001.

9. An increase of $500,000 for a hands-on interactive science education facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

10. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Science Learning Center in Hammond, Indiana.

11. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Environmental Sciences Learning Center (part of the California Science Center) in Los Angeles, California.

12. An increase of $2,000,000 for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to implement the Wisconsin Initiative for Math, Science, and Technology.

13. An increase of $2,500,000 for the Jason Foundation.

14. An increase of $1,000,000 for the NASA Center of Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Technology at Texas College in Tyler, Texas.

15. An increase of $2,000,000 for the Lewis and Clark Rediscovery Web Technology Project.

16. An increase of $500,000 for the Aerospace Education Center in Cleveland, Ohio as a national hub for the SEMAA program.

17. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Carl Sagan Discovery Science Center at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center to implement the educational programming for this science learning project.

18. An increase of $1,000,000 for the Challenger Learning Center in Kenai, Alaska.

MISSION SUPPORT

Appropriates $2,608,700,000 for mission support instead of $2,584,000,000 as proposed by the House and Senate. The funding level arrived at for this account includes a reduction of $6,000,000 to research operations support from IFMP rescheduling as proposed by NASA to provide additional funding for the Mars 2003 Lander program.

The conferees are aware that NASA owns and operates a small fleet of administrative aircraft that are vital for the oversight and implementation of its mission. The conferees understand that the majority of the aircraft in this fleet are aging, presenting a burden upon NASA management in terms of maintenance requirements and resultant costs. The conferees, therefore, direct that NASA develop a plan to replace these aging administrative aircraft and consider fractional ownership as an alternative. NASA should submit this plan for administrative aircraft replacement to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate by April 15, 2001. The conferees continue to believe that fractional ownership may be of value to NASA and have therefore included $2,200,000 to be used for a two-year test of the concept. NASA is directed to enter into a fractional ownership contract, to be fully competed, by June 15, 2001.

The conferees agree to provide $18,000,000 for the E-Complex upgrades at Stennis Space Center and $10,500,000 for a propulsion test operations building and for upgrades to the East/West access road at Stennis. In addition, the funds used for upgrades to the East/West access road may be used to match title 23 highway funds.

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

The conferees agree to provide $23,000,000 for the Office of Inspector General, the same as proposed by both the House and Senate.

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS

The conferees agree to include four administrative provisions which were included in the bill in fiscal year 2000. The fifth administrative provision is addressed at the beginning of the NASA section of this statement. The conferees have not included an administrative provision proposed by the Senate which would have incorporated the Senate report into the bill by reference.