Senate panel advances $51.1B bill to fund Commerce, Justice, science

The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a $51.1 billion bill Thursday in a 27-3 vote to fund the Commerce and Justice Departments, as well as science agencies for fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1.

“This appropriations bill is responsible for helping to keep Americans safe and spurring scientific and economic innovation,” Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said.

The GOP-led panel adopted an amendment from ranking member Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) on medical marijuana in a 21-9 vote. The provision would prohibit the Justice Department from using funds to prevent states with medical marijuana laws from implementing them.

{mosads}The bill contains $965 million more than current levels, but $985 million less than President Obama requested. The House recently passed its version of the bill with $51.4 billion in funding.

For the next fiscal year, the Senate bill contains funding for the FBI, Patent and Trademark Office, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Census Bureau, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Prisons, NASA, and the National Science Foundation, among others.

NASA would receive $19.3 billion, which is $279 million above 2015 levels and $240 million less than Obama’s request. That funding would be used for NASA programs and systems to enable humans to explore space beyond current capabilities, such as taking astronauts to Mars and beyond.

The bill contains funding to advance the creation of privately owned vehicles that could bring people to the International Space Station, allowing the U.S. to end its reliance on Russia for transporting Americans. Mikulski said the bill underfunds that program, however, and that NASA will have to continue relying on Russia beyond 2017.

Mikulski’s office said the bill doesn’t provide any of Obama’s $50 million request to provide legal services to children involved in the immigration court system.

The bill provides $1.13 billion to the Census Bureau, but Mikulski said the agency predicts the 2020 census could cost more than $17 billion.

It’s unclear whether the bill contains funding for body cameras, which received $25 million in the House version of the measure. The White House had requested $50 million for the next fiscal year. Additional details will be released Thursday afternoon once the bill is unveiled.