A research service on Capitol Hill dedicated to keeping Members of Congress up-to-date on policy issues and statistical analyses is again being starved of funding.
The $107.9 million proposed for the 2017 budget of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) wouldn’t even cover the agency’s current staffing costs, two Democratic lawmakers stated last week. The House Appropriations Committee approved of the funding level on May 17, in a mark-up vote.
CRS had asked for more investment to hire “two defense policy staff, five health policy staff, three education policy staff, two budget/appropriations staff, four technology policy staff, and two data management and analysis staff,” according to Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.). The committee report itself noted CRS had requested about $6.5 million more than what the panel eventually approved.
Although the 2017 proposal marks a $1 million uptick from 2016, CRS has seen its budget tighten by $4.6 million since 2010. The decline, the agency says, has led to a 13 percent reduction in purchasing power.
In their section of the committee report, Lowey and Wasserman-Schultz accused House Republicans of “depriving Congress of a non-biased analysis.” The document was flagged on Tuesday by investigative journalist Steven Aftergood.
CRS prepares roughly 3,000 reports annually at the behest of Members of Congress on a whole variety of issues, from briefs on the Zika virus to federal prison populations to US policy in Libya. The research materials produced are for legislative staff use only, but are often republished by those with access to congressional intranet.
Bicameral and bipartisan legislation introduced in March would direct CRS to publish most of its findings online for the general public. It has the support of Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).
The proposal was shot down when the House Appropriations Committee voted to approve 2017 funding levels for CRS. Introduced by Quigley and Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), an amendment to make CRS research more public was rejected in an 18-32 vote.
