House appropriators are expected to scrutinize President Obama's proposed 2012 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as they take a broader look at the Commerce Department budget Thursday, and the administration's plans to increase the agency's budget and boost climate programs are likely to generate discussion.

Amid the cost-cutting consensus on Capitol Hill, the White House wants to grow NOAA's budget and reorganize the agency's climate change portfolio from top to bottom.

President Obama's fiscal 2012 budget request seeks $5.498 billion for NOAA, a slight cutback from last year's $5.554 billion request but a 16 percent increase from the $4.740 billion the agency received in fiscal 2010 (Greenwire, Feb. 14).

Appropriators will go over the budget at a meeting of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

House Republicans have sought to cut NOAA's budget via stopgap spending measures aimed at carrying the federal government through the end of the fiscal year.

At the top of the administration's request for NOAA is a new climate service, intended to provide "user-friendly" information to help federal, state and local governments as well as businesses adapt to climate change. The 2012 spending plan would put part of the portfolios of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the National Weather Service into a new Climate Service office, with funding for the service set at $345 million, though those two offices would continue to operate.

"For decades, NOAA and its partners have been providing climate information that is essential to many aspects of policy, planning and decision-making," the White House said in its budget documents. "The consolidation of NOAA's climate activities within [the climate service] will enable NOAA to more effectively provide climate services on regional to national to global scales."

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, March 17, at 2 p.m. in H-309 of the U.S. Capitol.

Witnesses: TBA.