President Trump released his $4.4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2019 on February 12 prioritizing defense, border security, infrastructure, and the opioid crisis, while proposing significant cuts to many domestic programs, including science agencies. The President’s FY 2019 Budget was released along with a last-minute addendum outlining additional spending priorities that effectively rolled back some of the initially proposed cuts to a few science agencies, such as the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science and the National Science Foundation (NSF). However, even with the addendum additions, the President’s request for non-defense discretionary spending remained $57 billion below the caps agreed upon by Congress.

For the second time in 2018, the federal government went into a partial shutdown on February 9 – this time for just under nine hours – until H.R.1892 passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Trump. The bill funds the federal government at fiscal year (FY) 2017 levels until March 23, 2018, raises the budget caps for FY 2018 and FY 2019 by almost $300 billion, increases the debt limit through March 1, 2019, and provides nearly $90 billion in disaster relief for recent fires and hurricanes. 

Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced three bills that would limit the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on February 27.

President Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to review the “Waters of the United States” rule.

How should the federal government price carbon in its assessments?

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February 2017

On February 15, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-6) introduced an amendment (H.R.1068) to the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was last amended in 1996.

On February 17, the Senate unanimously passed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Transition Authorization Act (S.442).

The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing on the future of NASA on February 16, 2017.

Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL-8) introduced the Reasserting American Leadership in Space Act (H.R.870) on February 3.