So much for that Obama idea.
Environment & Energy Daily reports:
Don’t expect the nation’s ocean and weather agency to be bundled into the Interior Department when the president releases his 2013 budget request later this morning, several sources say.
Environmentalists, ocean-state lawmakers and key appropriators say they have little reason to believe the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s roughly $5 billion budget will be included in the Interior spending plan for fiscal 2013, although the president last month proposed merging the two agencies.
“I kind of doubt it will be there,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the House’s top appropriator for Interior, said Wednesday. “I don’t think they’ve formalized that idea yet, and Congress hasn’t approved it yet”…