US 2012 Budget Priorities

In the 2012 budget priorities there are several obvious oddities including increases over 2010 base budget that seems to discountenance reason - given that 2010 budget reflects robust increases sustained by the Democratic congresses from 2006 through 2010 and two years of stimulus minded budgets - which reason dictates should be pared back to more sustainable levels.

Other interesting highlights of the budgets is the obvious duplication of efforts across departments for example : Renewable Energy is addressed in Agriculture and Energy. Nuclear Energy Security is addressed in both Energy and Defense.

Funding Highlights

Agriculture 

• Provides $23.9 billion in discretionary funding, a decrease of $3.2 billion. Consistent with Administration priorities, investments are made in renewable energy and key research areas. Savings are created by reducing direct payments to high-income farmers, refocusing USDA’s home ownership programs, and targeting USDA conservation programs.
• Invests $6.5 billion in renewable and clean energy to spur the creation of high-value jobs, make America more energy independent, and drive global competitiveness in the sector.
• Increases funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to $325 million and targets increases for research in areas that are key to American leadership: human nutrition and obesity reduction, food safety, sustainable bioenergy, global food security, and climate change.
• Refocuses rural housing assistance to programs that work better, providing 170,000 new home ownership opportunities, of which at least 30,000 are expected to go to low income rural borrowers
• Maximizes efficiency and effectiveness of forest restoration efforts to improve forest health and resiliency by combining and streamlining multiple programs.
• Funds for the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to restore and protect 271,158 acres of wetlands and provide over $1.4 billion for conservation assistance.
• Provides $7.4 billion to support supplemental nutrition assistance available to low-income and nutritionally at-risk pregnant and post-partum women, infants and children up to age 5.
• Provides $35 million for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved communities

 Commerce

• Provides $8.8 billion in discretionary spending, a decrease of $5.1 billion from the 2010 enacted level. This reflects increased funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and continued strong support for the promotion of U.S. exports. Reductions are made to lower priority and low-performing programs.
• Invests in American innovation by providing $764 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology laboratories, $75 million for the Technology Innovation Program, and $12 million for Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia, and by strengthening the fee structure at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and reforming the patent process.
• Enhances American manufacturers’ competitiveness by providing $143 million to the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which helps firms identify growth strategies and adopt more efficient manufacturing processes.
• Promotes American exports and export-related jobs by providing $526 million for the International Trade Administration as it continues to implement the National Export Initiative.
• Fosters the next generation of wireless broadband by supporting efforts to make 500 megahertz of additional spectrum commercially available, providing substantial benefit to consumers and businesses across the Nation.
• Provides over $10 billion of resources in mandatory spending, offset by spectrum auction proceeds, to help build an interoperable public safety broadband network that will strengthen economic growth and public safety, while benefitting from commercial innovation.
• Invests in regional economic competitiveness by providing $325 million to the Economic Development Administration to support planning, capacity building and capital projects through programs such as the Regional Innovation Program authorized in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act.
• Advances climate science and services to meet growing demands from the public and private sector for credible and timely products that aid in planning for and responding to climate variability and change.
• Sustains critical satellite programs to monitor the Earth’s weather and climate and improve forecasting for severe weather events to protect public safety. Supports fisheries stock assessments and economic development that contributes to sustainable fishing industries and coastal communities. Sustains support for the President’s National Ocean Policy and research programs.

Defense

• Provides $553 billion for the base budget, an increase of $22 billion above the 2010 appropriation. This reflects continued investment in national security priorities such as cybersecurity, satellites, and nuclear security. The Budget also includes a series of management and acquisition reforms that will produce a net of $78 billion in savings through 2016.
• Maintains ready forces and continues efforts to rebalance military forces to focus on both today’s wars as well as potential future conflicts.
• Enhances the Administration’s commitment to maintaining a reliable nuclear deterrent by increasing investments in the nuclear weapons complex and in weapon delivery technologies, and to nonproliferation by preventing the spread of nuclear materials around the world.
• Supports the Administration’s goal to provide the Nation’s military with the most effective and modern equipment possible in a cost-efficient manner. Departmental priorities include improving business practices, such as developing and purchasing weapons consistent with improved acquisition policy.
• Continues strong support for servicemembers and military families.
• Supports access to medical care for over 9.6 million servicemembers, retirees, and their families. This includes ongoing support for wounded warrior transition units and centers of excellence in vision, hearing, traumatic brain injury, and other areas to continuously improve the care provided to wounded, ill, and injured servicemembers.
• Reinvests $100 billion of expected savings in high-priority areas such as the development or purchase of unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets; more ships; a new ground combat vehicle; the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite; and the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
• Continues the reform agenda to achieve more efficient business operations.
• Invests in long-term scientific and technological innovation to ensure that the Nation has access to the best defense systems available in the world.
• Invests in new and on-going cybersecurity research and development and improvements to existing cybersecurity capabilities.

Intelligence

• Strengthens the capabilities of the Nation’s intelligence agencies to furnish timely, accurate, and insightful intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of foreign powers, including international terrorist groups.
• Improves intelligence integration and responsible information sharing for a more effective and efficient intelligence enterprise.
• Supports global intelligence operations in regions of strategic importance such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Enhances Federal Cybersecurity capabilities to protect a central part of our Nation’s and economy’s infrastructure.
• Allocates resources to support a U.S. Government-wide counterterrorism action plan.
• Improves oversight of the Intelligence Community’s contractor workforce to combat waste and improve the way Federal dollars are spent.

Education

• Provides $77.4 billion. The Budget includes a significant increase for K-12 education, while making tough choices to put the Pell Grant program on a sustainable fiscal path.
• Provides $1.4 billion for new competitions, modeled on the successful Race to the Top initiative, to strengthen and reform early childhood education, improve district performance in elementary and secondary education, and improve outcomes in higher education.
• Continues support for a $5,550 maximum Pell Grant award, $819 above the level in 2008, while putting the program on a sustainable fiscal path by eliminating the year-round Pell Grant and the in-school interest subsidy for graduate and professional student loans.
• Strengthens the effectiveness of America’s teachers with $975 million in competitive initiatives to recruit, prepare, reward, and retain great teachers.
• Invests $26.8 billion, an increase of 6.9 percent, in a reformed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) focused on raising standards, encouraging innovation, and rewarding success, while allowing States and districts more flexibility to invest resources where they will have the greatest impact. The new ESEA directs funds to reform-oriented competitive initiatives, consolidates dozens of programs, and cuts programs that do not demand results.
• Provides $300 million for the Investing in Innovation program to support effective approaches to student learning.
• Invests $150 million in Promise Neighborhoods, to support effective community services, strong family supports, and rigorous comprehensive education reforms to improve the educational and life outcomes for children and youth in high-need communities.
• Provides over 13 million students with low-cost loans to attend college and provides new rewards for colleges and universities that achieve outcomes for disadvantaged students.
• Eliminates 13 discretionary programs and consolidates 38 K-12 programs into 11 streamlined programs focused on improved outcomes.
• Fosters productivity by encouraging States and districts to enact education reforms that are more cost-effective.

Energy

• Provides $29.5 billion, a 12 percent increase over the 2010 enacted level. This reflects increases for priority areas such as clean energy, nuclear security, and research and development. Savings are achieved through cuts to inefficient fossil energy programs.
• Doubles the number of Energy Innovation Hubs, adding three areas of research to focus on critical materials including rare earth materials, battery and energy storage, and new grid technologies and systems to help Smart Grid and improve energy transmission efficiency.
• Positions the United States to lead in the clean energy economy by providing $5.4 billion for long-term research and development at the Office of Science and $550 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy.
• Makes a significant commitment to U.S. energy technology leadership, more than doubling energy efficiency research, development, and deployment and increasing renewable energy investments by over 70 percent.
• Initiates a public-private effort to reduce energy usage in our Nation’s commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020. The Department of Energy’s programs include a “Race to Green” grant competition and a pilot program to provide retrofit loan guarantees that will focus on universities and hospitals. These programs complement an expanded and redesigned tax incentive for commercial building upgrades.
• Helps reach the goal of one million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 through more than $580 million to assist in research and development, a competitive grant program to support deployment in communities across the country, and enhancements to the existing electric vehicle tax incentive.
• Increases the percentage of electricity produced by clean energy sources by encouraging early commercial deployment of innovative clean energy technologies with additional loan guarantee support for nuclear power plants and innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. This financing support complements tax incentives (e.g., Section 1603 grants and Section 48c credits) for renewable energy generation and manufacturing.
• Eliminates inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to address the threat of climate change.
• Includes $7.6 billion to maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear weapons stockpile in support of the planned decrease in deployed U.S. and Russian weapons under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty approved by the Senate.

Health and Human Services

• Provides $79.9 billion, which is slightly above the 2010 funding level. This supports Administration priorities such as implementation of the Affordable Care Act, biomedical research, and Head Start. Savings are achieved through reductions in the Community Services Block Grant and home energy assistance.
• Includes significant deficit reduction resulting from the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
• Supports new consumer protections and review of unreasonable premium increases, expands coverage for uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions, and funds programs to hold health insurance companies more accountable to their enrollees.
• Continues a commitment to strengthen program integrity in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and provides new resources to reach the Administration’s goal of reducing the Medicare fee-for-service error rate in half by 2012.
• Invests in America’s competitiveness through funding for biomedical research.
• Strengthens national preparedness through funding for the advanced development of next generation medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
• Invests approximately $3.5 billion for discretionary HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities across the Department to expand access to affordable health care and prevention services and align activities with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
• Increases access to health care services among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• Ensures our Nation’s food safety system is stronger and more reliable by implementing key provisions of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act and recommendations from the President’s Food Safety Network Working Group.
• Builds on the President’s Zero to Five Agenda to improve outcomes for America’s children with investments in Child Care and Head Start.
• Proposes reforms to child welfare to improve outcomes for children in key areas, such as safety and permanency.
• Supports the President’s fatherhood agenda by encouraging States to ensure that when fathers do the right thing and pay child support, their children benefit.

Homeland Security

• Provides $43.2 billion, an increase of $309 million above the 2010 enacted level. Increases were made in core homeland security functions such as border security and Coast Guard assets. Savings are achieved by the elimination of stove-piped and duplicative State and local grant programs, administrative costs, and professional contract services.
• Refocuses funding for border surveillance on technologies that have proven to work, allowing for a tailored approach in different border regions instead of the previous one-size-fits-all approach.
• Bolsters the Nation’s preparedness by providing $3.8 billion for State and local grants to support capability enhancements for the first responder and emergency management communities.
• Safeguards the Nation’s transportation systems with an $82 million increase to support deployment of up to 1,275 Advanced Imaging Technology screening machines at airport checkpoints, with robust, built-in privacy safeguards.
• Strengthens border security and immigration enforcement by supporting 21,370 Border Patrol agents and by enhancing and expanding immigration verification systems.
• Supports the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative efforts to secure information networks and defend against cyber-threats to Federal networks, the Nation’s critical infrastructure, and economy.
• Upgrades the Coast Guard’s assets by providing $358 million to construct six more Fast Response Cutters and $130 million to construct two more Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
• Supports military families through a $9 million increase for Coast Guard-sponsored child care services.

Housing and Urban Development

• Provides a gross spending (program) level of $48 billion, an increase of over $900 million over 2010 and a net level of $42 billion, a decrease of $1.1 billion from 2010. To help deliver on the President’s commitment to reduce spending, funding for several grant programs has been reduced below recent enacted levels and increases were made only for the neediest Americans, including an initiative to combat homelessness.
• Continues to deliver a high level of housing counseling services, including assistance for families in danger of foreclosure, and continues to offer loss mitigation solutions for FHA- insured borrowers similarly at risk.
• Improves public housing and revitalizes surrounding neighborhoods by providing $250 million to continue HUD’s transformative investments in high-poverty neighborhoods where distressed HUD-assisted public and privately owned housing is located.
• Invests in sustainable, innovative communities by providing $150 million to create incentives for more communities to develop comprehensive housing and transportation plans that result in sustainable development, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and increased transit- accessible housing.
• Supports an interagency effort led by HUD and the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to help distressed cities and regions utilize public resources more strategically and forms partnerships to support job creation and economic development.
• Reduces funding for the Community Development Block Grant Program by $300 million. The reduced funding level will continue to enable State and local governments to address infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic development needs in their communities.
• Provides $35 billion to preserve rental housing assistance to 4.7 million low-income families and $200 million to begin the transformation of HUD-assisted public and privately-owned housing, and thereby prevent the loss of critical affordable units, by leveraging private capital for preservation.
• Provides more than $2.5 billion to continue progress toward the Administration’s goal to end chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans and families, implementing an innovative, multi-agency strategic plan.

Interior

• Provides $12 billion, which is roughly the same as in previous years. This reflects increases in land and water conservation programs as well as increased funding for oversight of offshore oil and gas drilling. Savings are achieved through decreases in the U.S. Geological Survey, significant reductions to construction programs across the Department, and some tribal program reductions.
• Supports the development of new solar, wind, and geothermal electricity generation capacity, which can create jobs, drive growth and mitigate the effects of climate change.
• Promotes water conservation through programs like the water reuse and recycling effort and WaterSMART, and continues restoration of sensitive ecosystems such as the California Bay-Delta.
• Provides over $500 million to restructure the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and strengthen oversight of offshore oil and gas operations in the aftermath of the unprecedented Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
• Improves the return to taxpayers from mineral production on Federal lands and waters through royalty reforms and industry fees.
• Conserves landscapes and promotes outdoor recreation and youth employment in national parks, refuges, and on other public lands through the America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
• Reduces the environmental impacts of coal and hardrock mining by dedicating and prioritizing funds to reclaim abandoned mines.
• Strengthens Native American communities through the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 with funding to reduce crime and protect natural resources.

Justice

• Provides $28.2 billion, a 2 percent increase above 2010. This reflects strong funding for Federal law enforcement efforts including FBI operations, corrections officers, and prosecution. Savings are achieved by streamlining operations along with reductions to local and State grants and technology projects.
• Supports the continued robust efforts to crack down on financial fraud, which have already brought charges for fraud schemes that have cost victims more than $8 billion in estimated losses nationwide.
• Maintains litigation efforts and ongoing investigations regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
• Increases funding for the Department’s national security programs, which are critical for countering the threat of terrorism.
• Streamlines programs and redirects funding to improve the capabilities of Department of Justice law enforcement agents.
• Addresses the Federal prison population through sentencing reform and expanded re-entry programming.
• Continues to strengthen State and local criminal justice programs with almost $3 billion in discretionary assistance for police hiring, general purpose criminal justice assistance, violence against women programs, and other initiatives.

Labor

• Provides $12.8 billion, a 5 percent reduction from the 2010 enacted level. This reflects a shift in investments to a new Workforce Innovation Fund and increases for worker protection and mine safety programs. The Budget achieves savings through a reduction in funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, and transfers it to the Department of Health and Human Services to improve coordination with other programs for seniors. The Budget also includes a 25 percent reduction in the Job Corps construction budget.
• Invests almost $380 million in the Departments of Labor and Education for a competitive “Workforce Innovation Fund” that will allow States and regions to compete for funds by demonstrating their commitment to transforming their workforce systems, including breaking down program silos and paying programs for success.
• Supports reform of the Workforce Investment Act to match unemployed workers with jobs and to give workers a chance to upgrade their skills to compete in the global economy.
• Provides short-term relief for businesses in States with indebted Unemployment Insurance systems, coupled with opportunities for States to improve the long-term solvency of these systems so that they can pay back their debts and provide adequate benefits when they are needed.
• Expands the use of work-sharing, allowing firms to retain workers by reducing employees’ weekly hours instead of having to lay them off and giving workers a partial unemployment check to supplement their reduced paycheck.
• Safeguards workers’ pensions by encouraging companies to fully fund their employees’ promised pension benefits and assuring the long-term solvency of the Federal pension insurance system.
• Increases support for agencies that protect workers’ wages, benefits, and health and safety and reduces the inappropriate misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
• Assists families who need to take time off to care for a child or other loved one by helping States launch paid leave programs.
• Creates new opportunities to save for retirement by establishing a system of automatic workplace pensions and doubling the small employer pension plan start-up credit.

State

• Provides $47 billion for the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, a 1 percent increase from 2010, when costs for Overseas Contingency Operations are excluded. Significant levels of funding are continued for operations and assistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Increases are made in the areas of food security and global health. Savings have been created through foreign assistance reductions in several countries.
• Makes strategic investments essential for U.S. national security in a time of constrained resources, and strengthens core diplomatic and development activities essential for U.S. global leadership.
• Promotes U.S. exports and economic growth by supporting the President’s National Export Initiative through increased resources for the Export-Import Bank.
• Supports implementation of the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development by targeting investments that will support economic growth, democratic governance, game- changing innovations, sustainable capacity, and mutual accountability, especially through initiatives in global health, climate change, and food security.
• Invests in multilateral institutions, including the multilateral development banks, leveraging resources from other donor partners and supporting key countries and Administration priorities.
• Reduces bilateral programs and the Assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia account to focus funding on regions with the greatest assistance needs.
• Reduces funding for the African Development and Inter-American Foundations by nearly 20 percent and directs the organizations to seek partnerships to leverage and maximize remaining funding.
• Continues a multi-year initiative to strengthen U.S. diplomatic and development expertise in countries of the greatest strategic importance.
• Advances efforts to address national security challenges through a cooperative approach that includes funding to support a Global Security Contingency Fund that integrates Defense and State resources to address security crises involving both agencies.
• Supports U.S. Agency for International Development operational and programmatic improvements, including reforms to procurement systems and investments in science and technology, innovation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Transportation

• Provides $13.4 billion in discretionary resources in 2012, a $1.3 billion decrease from 2010 levels. (This figure excludes $109 billion in obligation limitations for the surface transportation plan. Including surface transportation obligation limitations, Department of Transportation’s total budgetary resources increase by $53 billion over 2010.)
• Includes a six-year, $556 billion surface reauthorization plan to modernize the country’s surface transportation infrastructure, create jobs, and pave the way for long-term economic growth. The President will work with the Congress to ensure that the plan will not increase the deficit.
• Jump-starts productive investment and stimulates job growth with a first-year funding boost of $50 billion in 2012.
• Provides $8 billion in 2012 and $53 billion over six years to reach the President’s goal of providing 80 percent of Americans with convenient access to a passenger rail system, featuring high-speed service, within 25 years.
• Includes $30 billion over six years for a pioneering National Infrastructure Bank to invest in projects of regional or national significance to the economy.
• Continues to invest in the Next Generation Air Transportation System—a revolutionary modernization of our aviation system.
• Initiates Transportation Leadership Awards to create incentives for State and local partners to pursue critical transportation policy reforms.
• Reduces funding for Airport Grants, focusing Federal support on smaller airports, while giving larger airports additional flexibility to raise their own resources.

Treasury

• Provides $14 billion, a 4 percent increase above the 2010 enacted level. This increase is due to costs associated with implementation of legislation and new investments in IRS tax compliance activities that help reduce the deficit. In all other areas of the Treasury budget, funding remains highly constrained—more than 1 percent below the 2010 enacted level.
• Enables the implementation of critical reforms to the U.S. financial regulatory system through support for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which will create a stronger, fairer financial system and foster continued growth.
• Increases small business lending and responsibly manages Troubled Asset R4elief Program investments to protect taxpayer interests while winding down extraordinary interventions in the financial market.
• Expands job-creating investments and access to credit in disadvantaged communities through the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
• Saves money for taxpayers through a robust set of administrative savings and efficiencies that will streamline operations and provide considerable savings into the future.
• Ensures high-quality taxpayer services through targeted investments in the IRS, moving forward key technology modernization projects, and continuing sophisticated compliance programs to reduce the deficit and better achieve a tax system that is fair for all.
• Proposes a suite of legislative and administrative debt collection reforms that will yield more than $5 billion of additional collections over the next 10 years from individuals and businesses that have failed to pay taxes or repay Government loans, a significant portion of which will be returned to States.

Veterans Affairs

• Provides $61.85 billion, a 10.6 percent increase over 2010 to meet increased demand. •    Prioritizes the specialized care needed by veterans with post-traumatic stres98s, traumatic brain
  injury, and other psychological and cognitive health needs.
• Provides advance appropriations for VA’s Medical Care in 2013, which requires a multi-year budgeting approach to effectively manage medical care resources across multiple fiscal years.
• Dramatically expands benefits and medical care for veterans’ caregivers. •    Increases the historic funding level for the Administration’s ongoing efforts to combat veteran homelessness.
• Improves VA responsiveness and efficiency by beginning the implementation of a new paperless system that will provide faster and more accurate benefits claims processing and improve veterans’ access to benefits information.
• Reduces spending for construction to focus resources on providing timely, high-quality care and benefits to veterans.

Overseas Contingency Operations

• Adopts a uniform approach to budgeting in conflict areas, thereby aligning priorities among Departments and improving coordination and efficiency.
• Includes the military and civilian costs necessary to achieve U.S. national security goals in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan including the transition from a military to a civilian-led mission in Iraq.
• Integrates International Affairs resource requirements related to extraordinary and temporary national security needs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan with Department of Defense budget planning through creation of an Overseas Contingency Operations budget for the Department of State.
• Promotes transparency and fiscal discipline in the Budget by clearly separating those costs within the Overseas Contingency Operations budget that do not represent permanent base Budget requirements and will be phased out over time.
• Provides $118 billion for the Department of Defense, of which $107 billion is for Operation Enduring Freedom that supports activities in Afghanistan and $11 billion for Operation New Dawn (formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom) that supports activities in Iraq.
• Funds $8.7 billion for the Department of State, of which $2.2 billion is for Afghanistan, $1.2 billion is for Pakistan, and $5.2 billion is for Iraq. The increase associated with the Department of State is more than offset by reduced costs for the Department of Defense.

Civil Works (Corps of Engineers)

• Provides $4.6 billion, a reduction of $913 million from the 2010 level. The Budget proposes to create savings and efficiencies through the elimination of duplicative and lower-priority programs including Corps funding of local water and waste water treatment projects.
• Focuses funding on water resources infrastructure projects that produce high economic and environmental returns to the Nation and those that address public safety needs.
• Restores high-priority ecosystems such as the California Bay-Delta, the Everglades, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from damage incurred by the Deepwater oil spill. This funding will help ensure their ecological sustainability and resilience, which also help support the economic growth of the surrounding areas.
• Supports a comprehensive levee safety initiative to help ensure that Federal levees are safe and to enhance efforts to assist non-Federal parties in addressing safety issues with their levee systems.
• Provides priority funding for the maintenance of existing high performing projects, such as the high commercial use Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and the Illinois Waterway.
• Reforms the civil works program to improve the way that the Army Corps of Engineers addresses the Nation’s most pressing water resources challenges.
• Proposes changes in the way Federal navigation activities are funded, and supports increases in inland waterways receipts.
• Increases the organizational efficiency and improves the management, oversight, and performance of ongoing programs.

Environmental Protection Agency

• Provides $9 billion, a decrease of $1.3 billion. Funding is maintained for core priorities, such as State and tribal categorical grants and enforcement of environment and public health protections. In order to achieve savings in a fiscally-constrained time, decreases are made to the State Revolving Funds, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and the clean diesel grant program.
• Supports the 2012 implementation of a historic national program to reduce greenhouse gases and improve fuel economy for cars and trucks. This action is projected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil and reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle fleet by about 21 percent by 2030 over the level that would occur in the absence of the national program.
• Stimulates economic growth in areas stymied by brownfields by providing technical assistance and maintaining an area-wide planning program to integrate sustainable community development with environmental remediation activities.
• Reduces funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by $125 million below the previous enacted level, which will allow for continued ecosystem restoration efforts while exercising fiscal restraint.
• Reduces funding for State Revolving Funds by $950 million, which will still enable States and Tribes to initiate approximately 600 clean water and 400 drinking water projects nationally, and provide a four year investment of almost $17 billion for water infrastructure.
• Provides enforcement funding to increase compliance inspections at high-risk facilities and enhance monitoring and reporting capabilities, building on successful collaboration with State and tribal partners.
• Enables States and Tribes to implement their environmental programs with $1.2 billion in funding, an increase of $85 million.
• Promotes chemical safety by increasing the Agency’s pace in developing hazard assessments for highly produced industrial chemicals, and improving information management and transparency.

NASA

• Provides $18.7 billion, the same amount the agency received in 2010. Funding focuses on areas that will improve the Nation’s space capabilities, strengthen our competitive edge, and prepare the next generation of leaders in the field. The Budget also proposes to streamline operations and boost efficiencies at facilities.
• Maintains the Nation’s commitment to humanity’s foothold in space—the International Space Station—bringing nations together in a common pursuit of knowledge and excellence.
• Initiates development of a heavy-lift rocket and crew capsule to carry explorers beyond Earth’s orbit, including a mission to an asteroid next decade—the furthest journey in human history.
• Embraces partnership with the commercial space industry and the thousands of new jobs that it can create by contracting with American companies to provide astronaut transportation to the Space Station—thus reducing the risk of relying exclusively on foreign crew transport capabilities.
• Supports groundbreaking innovations by continuing a program of robotic solar system explo- ration and new astronomical observatories, including a probe that will fly through the Sun’s atmosphere and a new competitively-selected planetary science mission.
• Supports a robust and diverse fleet of Earth observation spacecraft to strengthen U.S leader- ship in the field, better understand climate change, improve future weather predictions, and provide vital environmental data to Federal, State, and local policymakers.
• Sharpens the focus of the aeronautics research program by emphasizing enhancing aviation safety and airspace efficiency, and reducing the environmental impact of aviation.
• Initiates a pilot program to provide NASA Centers and surrounding communities with clean energy through the innovative use of NASA property.

National Science Foundation

• Provides $7.8 billion for the National Science Foundation, an increase of 13 percent above the 2010 enacted level. Investments are made in areas that contribute to the President’s Plan for Science and Innovation. Savings are also created by reducing funding for low-performing and lower-priority education and research programs.
• Demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to research and development as a driver of economic growth, consistent with the President’s plan to double funding for key basic research agencies.
• Fosters the development of a clean energy economy by providing $998 million for a cross- agency sustainability research effort focused on renewable energy technologies and complex environmental- and climate-system processes.
• Supports job creation in advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies with significant increases for multidisciplinary research targeted at next-generation computer chips, wireless communications, and robotics technologies.
• Invests in the growth of America’s science and technology workforce with $20 million for recruiting and retaining undergraduate students from under-represented groups.
• Invests in the next generation of math and science teachers with a new $20 million research and development program aimed at improving the preparation and professional development of future educators in these fields.
• Builds first-of-a-kind distributed research facilities to continuously monitor the Nation’s environment and oceans.

Small Business Administration

• Provides $985 million, a 45 percent decline from 2010 enacted funding, which included $962 million in supplemental appropriations. Excluding supplemental funding, the 2012 request is $161 million higher primarily due to increased estimated credit subsidy costs. Funding for administrative costs and Small Business Development Centers will go down as a result of fiscal restraints.
• Supports $27 billion in loan guarantees for small businesses to enable them to invest, expand, and create jobs.
• Promotes impact investment in economically distressed regions.
• Helps innovative small businesses obtain early-stage financing.
• Encourages business development and economic growth through funding for technical assistance, including competitive grants to develop business leaders in underserved markets and to help businesses benefit from regional economic strategies.
• Continues implementation of Small Business Jobs Act initiatives, promoting technical assistance and small business exporting.
• Provides long-term disaster recovery loans for homeowners, renters, and businesses of all sizes.
• Strengthens lender and procurement program oversight to protect taxpayer dollars.
• Upgrades the Agency’s financial management systems to improve the financial integrity and efficiency of SBA credit programs.

Social Security Administration

• Provides $12.5 billion, an increase of $1 billion above 2010, to keep the President’s promise to reduce the backlog of disability claims. To pursue cost savings, the Budget provides resources to more effectively and efficiently process disability reviews and to enhance long- term program integrity.
• Invests in increased program integrity by providing $938 million, targeted at expanding efforts that ensure the agency makes payments to the right person and in the right amount, in order to generate cost savings.
• Proposes an interagency pilot to improve outcomes for children in the Supplemental Security Income program.
• Proposes a pilot program to explore ways to help disabled Americans return to work.

Community for National and Community Services

• Provides $1.3 billion, 9 percent above 2010 funding levels.
• Supports growth in AmeriCorps to 90,000 members, providing more Americans with opportunities to serve their communities.
• Fosters the replication of innovative and proven programs through the Social Innovation Fund.
• Creates a demonstration project within Senior Corps that will support and test promising approaches to engaging retiring Americans in service.