Appropriations Bill Restores Some Education Research Funding, Drops “Coburn Amendment”


January 2014

On January 17, President Barack Obama signed into law an FY2014 appropriations bill for all federal agencies, or an omnibus, that restores some of the funding for education and social science research that had been cut by sequestration during FY2013.

In a significant victory for the social sciences, the omnibus also does not contain the so-called “Coburn Amendment,” which, in last year's spending bill, barred most National Science Foundation support for political science.

IES and NSF Funding
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will receive $576.9 million, an increase of $14 million over FY2013 but below the $593.7 million allocated to the agency in FY2012.

Many of the programs within IES are funded at the same level as in FY2013, with increases for the National Center for Special Education Research and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The Statewide Longitudinal Data System grants received a small decrease in funds. Detailed figures are included in the following table.


The Education and Human Resources Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) is being appropriated $846.5 million, an increase of $13.2 million over FY2013. Specific figures for FY2014 are not yet available for NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate.

Related article:

R&D in the FY 2014 Omnibus: The Big Picture,” AAAS, January 28, 2014