Commerce Department

Under President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request the Commerce Department would receive a total discretionary budget authority of $7.99 billion, or 1.43 percent more than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation.  

The "Executive Direction," requesting $32 million for fiscal 2013, and "Departmental Staff Services," requesting $24 million for fiscal 2013, budget lines both saw a decrease in budget authority. These accounts include the funding for the BusinessUSA and Commerce Connect initiatives, according to the budget document. Business.USA.gov, a new website now under development, aims to consolidate business-centric information from across government in a single place. VanRoekel said the U.K. government's move to consolidate all federal websites down to two domains--a business interface and a consumer interface

For more:
- download the Commerce section of the budget request (.pdf)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Under President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request NIST would receive a total discretionary budget authority of $860 million, or 10.84 percent more than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation. Of that total, Scientific and Technical Research Services would be obligated $649 million in budget authority for fiscal 2013, a 10.71 percent increase from fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation.

The increase in STRS's budget line means "NIST will continue to support Advanced Manufacturing R&D in areas such as robotics, nanomanufacturing and the Materials Genome Initiative," says the president's budget document. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace also falls within the STRS budget line.

According to a Feb. 13 statement from NIST, the STRS funding request includes $45 million increase for measurement science for advanced manufacturing, $20 million increase for NIST centers of excellence, $10 million increase for measurement science to support advanced communications networks, and an $8 million increase for NSTIC. A funding increase would likely be welcomed by the NSTIC program office, which recently announced plans to fund eight pilot projects over the next 2 years.

Under the budget request Industrial Technology Services would obtain $149 million in fiscal 2013 fuding, or 14.17 percent more than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation.

For more:
- see the NIST press release
- download the Commerce section of the budget request (.pdf)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA would receive a total budget authority of $5.179 billion in fiscal 2013, or 1.31 percent more than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation. One of the larger budget lines within NOAA would take a substantial cut under the proposal however. The budget would fund the National Weather Service at $872 million in fiscal 2013, or 6.12 percent less than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation. The weather service is NOAA's warning and forecasting arm.

While the Weather Service's budget is cut in the request, the document says there is a funding increase directed to NWS's IT infrastructure "to improve system reliability and accommodate a substantial increase in satellite observations that will help to improve weather warnings and forecasts."

Under the proposal, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research budget line would see a real increase of 4.85 percent in fiscal 2013 with a funding amount of 403 million. OAR's programs provide climate, weather, air chemistry, ocean and coastal research and technology with applications across NOAA's mission, explains the budget document.

The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service would also see a bump in funding--the request of $191 million is 3.50 percent more than fiscal 2012 estimated spending when accounting for inflation. "NESDIS operates polar orbiting and geostationary satellites, and collects and archives global environmental data and information for distribution to private and public sector users," according to the  budget document.

The budget document says the request would provide funding to allow "continuity of satellite coverage needed for weather forecasting and climate monitoring by providing $1.8 billion to fund the development of NOAA's geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, as well as satellite-borne measurements of sea level and potentially damaging solar storms."

Gaps in satellite weather data collection have been a recurring fear in Government Accountability Office reports and congressional hearings for several months.

For more:
- download the Commerce section of the budget request (.pdf)

 Patent and Trademark Office

According to the president's fiscal 2013 budget request, PTO will make more in fees than it will spend at the program level in the next fiscal year. The Commerce Department subtotal for PTO indicates that the department will actually take in $2 million more than Congress says it should have to spend. Excess money collected by PTO goes to the Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund. 

For more:
- download the Commerce section of the budget request (.pdf)

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National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The White House fiscal 2013 budget proposal includes a $46.93 million discretionary spending request for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and $50 million in proposed new mandatory spending to set up a Public Safety Broadband Corporation within NTIA.

The corporation would oversee deployment of a nationwide public safety broadband network; the corporation and the network would be paid for with a proposed $7 billion Public Safety Trust Fund the administration says would be paid for by incentive spectrum auctions held by the Federal Communications Commission.

The public safety network, the NTIA budget request says, would be in the 700 Megahertz band, without specifying whether the so-called D block 10 MHz of spectrum would be a part of the network. The Obama administration supports reallocation of the D block to public safety. 

Also included in the NTIA request is $5.42 million for Internet innovation, including an effort to implement and advocate for an "Internet 3.0" policy framework. Internet 3.0, says the NTIA request, includes improvements such as enhanced online privacy, cybersecurity, child protection and copyright protection.

Correction Feb. 16: The NTIA total inflation-adjusted increase was earlier mis-stated due to a spreadsheet error. The correct inflation adjusted percentage is 108.63 percent. We deeply regret the error.

For more:
- download the Commerce Department fiscal 2013 budget in brief (.pdf)

Related Articles: 
LightSquared GPS interference cannot be solved, say federal agencies 
No 'supranational regulatory body' should govern the Internet, say U.S. officials 
NTIA: U.S. broadband penetration increases; income disparities remain

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