The House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations subcommittee approved a bill that provides $4.9 billion for NOAA in the 2014 fiscal year that begins on 1 October.

 

The current budget is roughly equivalent to the 2012 budget, but approximately $500 million below the $5.4 billion requested by President Barack Obama. The figure is also $300 million less than the $5.2 billion the agency was allotted in 2013. The additional funds helped to shield NOAA from the effects of the automatic 5 percent budget cuts.

  

The details of the bill won’t be available until the spending panel completes its work. However, panel leaders expressed their desire to protect several of NOAA’s highest profile programs in a recent press release. The House bill would give the National Weather Service (NWS) more than $1 billion and fully fund two weather satellite programs. The Joint Polar Satellite System would get $824 million, while the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite would get $955 million.