By Michael P. Voiland
There's good news and bad news for Cornell at the federal budget level.
With Congress and President Clinton still at odds over how to balance the federal government's budget by the year 2002, only seven of the 13 fiscal year 1996 bills that appropriate funds to run the government have become law. But passage of the agri culture, defense and energy-water appropriations bills have assured continued fund ing of many agricultural programs (such as Cornell Cooperative Extension) and research projects conducted at Cornell through the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The remaining appropriations bills ei
ther have not passed the Congress or have passed that body but have been vetoed by the president. This has led to the need for "continuing resolutions" passed by Con gress and signed by the president to maintain funding on a temporary basis.
Currently, a continuing resolution has funded the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- Cornell's single largest federal spon sor -- at a 5.7 percent increase for the balance of the fiscal year. A different continuing resolution allows spending through Jan. 26 for all other unappropriated agencies but at levels generally equal to or less than that received last year.
Falling under this short-term, limited funding resolution are many agencies or
programs of great interest to university faculty, such as the National Science Foundation (Cornell is NSF's largest university beneficiary), NASA, EPA (including Cornell's Superfund Basic Research and Education Program), the Department of Com merce (including Cornell's Sea Grant, Northeast Regional Climate Center and Local Government programs) and the Department of the Interior (including Cornell's Coopera tive Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Water Resources Institute programs).
Unless appropriations bills covering these programs pass before Jan. 26, another con tinuing resolution, or program-specific funding bills, will have to become law if further program shutdowns are to be averted.