In a pair of hearings this week, House lawmakers will question top National Science Foundation officials on a fiscal 2013 budget proposal that provides a cash injection for climate change research and other environmental projects.

NSF Director Subra Suresh will appear tomorrow before the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with science spending. On Thursday, Suresh's deputy director, Cora Marrett, will visit to the House Science, Space and Technology Committee to testify on NSF's large research projects, including a network of environmental observatories.

President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2013 would give NSF a 5 percent increase, bringing its funding to $7.4 billion.

That includes larger spending on sustainability research, including a new green chemistry research program and a new climate and weather program known as "Creating a More Disaster Resilient America."

The proposed budget also includes $196 million for NSF's major research facilities, an 0.5 percent cut from last fiscal year. It is still a 57 percent increase above fiscal 2011 levels because 2012 saw the addition of a line item for the National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, funded at $88 million.

NEON is still under construction, but its 60 research sites could begin gathering environmental signals as soon as next fiscal year, the budget proposal says. Tony Beasley, the project manager of NEON, will testify at Thursday's hearing.

"NEON will enable research on the impacts of climate and land use change, water use and invasive species on the nation's living ecosystems at temporal and spatial scales that are relevant to human wellbeing," the proposal says. "NEON will be the first research platform and the only national experimental facility specifically designed to enable basic research in these areas."

The funding for fiscal 2013 would also support the continued development of the Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detector, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope and the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

The title of the hearing, which is billed as a step toward "ensuring fiscal responsibility and accountability" within the program, suggests that Republicans on the science committee may have concerns about the projects going over budget.

NSF says it will manage those sorts of risks with a "no cost overrun" policy, which requires the cost estimate for a project to cover all foreseeable risks and scales back projects that do not stay on budget.

Schedule: The House Appropriations hearing is tomorrow at 10 a.m. in H-309 Capitol.

Witness: NSF Director Subra Suresh.

Schedule: The House Science hearing is Thursday, March 8, at 10 a.m. in 2318 Rayburn.

Witnesses: Cora Marrett, deputy director, National Science Foundation; José-Marie Griffiths, chairman, National Science Board Subcommittee on Facilities; James Yeck, project director for IceCube, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Tony Beasley, project manager, Neon Inc.; and Tim Cowles, vice president and director of ocean observing, Consortium for Ocean Leadership.