National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) FY2023 Budget Request and Appropriations

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an agency of the Department of Commerce whose mission is to understand and predict changes in weather, climate, oceans, and coasts; to share that information with others; and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. NOAA's work is divided among six line offices: National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS); National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); National Ocean Service (NOS); National Weather Service (NWS); Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). NOAA also is supported by Mission Support (MS), which provides planning, leadership, finances, information technology, educational programming, and other support across NOAA's line offices.

Congress provides NOAA with annual mandatory and discretionary appropriations. Mandatory appropriations, which generally comprise a small percentage of total NOAA funding, are disbursed to various accounts that support programs in NOS, NMFS, and OMAO. NOAA's discretionary appropriations typically are included in the annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations act. Discretionary appropriations support two broad accounts—Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) and Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC)—as well as a few smaller accounts. This CRS product focuses on NOAA's FY2023 discretionary funding for ORF and PAC. The product also notes potential issues for Congress, including NOAA's satellite operations, climate-related products and services, and economic development activities.

Agency Funding

NOAA requested $7.20 billion in discretionary direct obligations for ORF and PAC for FY2023, including $6.82 billion in appropriations (Table 1). Direct obligations include annual appropriations, transfers, and recoveries from prior year obligations. Congress provided $6.54 billion for ORF and PAC direct obligations for FY2023 in P.L. 117-328 (Figure 1), including $6.15 billion in appropriations. Figure 1 does not show supplemental appropriations; Table 1 includes some supplemental funds.

The FY2023 enacted amounts included $111.5 million for community project funding or congressionally directed spending items. The NOAA FY2023 enacted annual amount is $426.0 million above the FY2022 enacted level and $660.0 million below the FY2023 requested amount.

Figure 1. ORF and PAC Annual Direct Obligations, FY2014-FY2023 ($ in billions, nominal and adjusted)

Sources: CRS, from NOAA budget justifications, congressional explanatory statements, and OMB, Historical Tables, Table 10.1. Notes: ORF = Operations, Research, and Facilities; PAC = Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction. Figure does not include supplemental appropriations. Lighter shaded areas denote amounts adjusted for inflation. Direct obligations include appropriations, transfers, and recoveries from prior year obligations.

Supplemental Appropriations Available in FY2023

Congress also has provided NOAA with supplemental appropriations for ORF and PAC that may be used through FY2023 and beyond, including

• $145.0 million for expenses related to hurricanes and wildfires in 2020 and 2021 (P.L. 117-43);
• $2.79 billion for restoration, observation, modeling, forecasting activities, and other purposes (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [IIJA]; P.L. 117-58);
• $3.31 billion for conservation, restoration, protection, construction, reviews, research and forecasting, computing capacity, aircraft acquisition, and other purposes (P.L. 117-169, often referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022); and
• $527.5 million for expenses related to hurricanes, typhoons, flooding, and wildfires in 2022; fishing gear and techniques; aircraft acquisition and other uses (P.L. 117-328)

Issues for Congress

NOAA's FY2023 requested budget proposed increased funding for multiple activities, the largest portion of which was requested for satellites, climate products and services, and economic development activities.

Satellite Operations

NOAA, through NESDIS, manages several portfolios of environmental satellites. The agency requested $2.28 billion for NESDIS in FY2023, an increase of $758.7 million above the FY2023 base level (Table 1). NOAA's largest proposed increase was $653.8 million for the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program, for a total program request of $663.8 million in FY2023. GeoXO contributes data to weather forecasts and detects and monitors environmental hazards (e.g., wildfires, smoke, fog). Congress provided $285.0 million for GeoXO in FY2023. In addition, from FY2020 to FY2023, NOAA requested to reorganize the NESDIS budget structure by grouping individual satellite missions. Congress largely approved the changes.

Climate Products and Services

NOAA requested $350.4 million above the FY2023 base level, across the line offices, to implement Executive Order 14008, "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad." The largest proposed increases included additional days at sea to collect data, additional funding for research and development related to high-performance computing, and funds to optimize and upgrade the program used to disseminate weather-related information. In FY2023, Congress broadly provided the requested funding.

The agency proposed also eliminating funding for the National Coastal Resilience Fund (to be funded with monies from IIJA) and the COASTAL Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-141); however, Congress provided FY2022 levels of appropriations for each program.

Economic Development

NOAA requested $212.5 million above the FY2023 base level, across NESDIS, NMFS, NOS, OAR, and MS, for activities to "foster environmental stewardship and sustainable economic development, with a particular focus on the New Blue Economy." The agency requested the largest increases under this theme to improve space situational awareness (i.e., keeping track of objects in orbit) and to procure and evaluate phased array radar technology, as a potential replacement for the current NEXRAD radar network; Congress provided some of the requested additional funding. NOAA also had requested funds to establish a national program to mitigate the effects of offshore wind energy activities on NMFS scientific surveys; it is unclear from available appropriations materials whether Congress provided these funds.