The Smithsonian Institute will receive an additional US$82m (€72.5m, £56.7m) in funding for 2017, should outgoing US President Barack Obama’s budget request be approved by Congress.
The administration’s fiscal year 2017 budget request for the Smithsonian is US$922m (€815m, £637.8m), up from the allocated US$840m (€742.5m, £581m) for 2016.
The Smithsonian says that the majority of the increase – US$63m (€55.7m, £43.6m) – will be spent on salaries and expenses for operations at Smithsonian’s museums and research institutes.
The Facilities Capital request for 2017 is US$163m (€144m, £112.7m), with funds from that pot going towards revitalisation projects involving major repairs and addressing problems with infrastructure. Within this sum, US$50m (€44.2m, £34.6m) will go towards development of a storage facility to house artefacts from the National Air and Space Museum during its multi-year renovation. A further US$29.3m (€25.9m, £20.2m) will be used for facilities planning and design for Smithsonian sites, while funds will also be used to develop the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoo and the National Museum of American History.
The Salaries and Expenses request for 2017 is US$759m (€670m, £525m), which includes a 1.6 per cent pay increase for federal employees, as well as a number of research projects, digitisation of collections and maintenance of collections. The largest increase within salaries and expenses is US$34m (€30m, £23.5m), which will cover facilities maintenance, security, information technology and overall operations.
Obama’s US$4.1tn (€3.6tn, £2.8tn) budget proposal is his last before leaving office. In addition to an increased budget for the Smithsonian, the President has included
US$3bn (€2.7bn, £2.1bn) for the National Park Service’s (NPS) critical conservation, preservation and recreation mission, while also requesting more funding to combat climate change and terrorism, and introduce new measures for gun control.
