The House finished work yesterday on a spending bill that includes $5 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Lawmakers voted 247-163 for the bill, which sets a funding level for NOAA just short of the current $5.1 billion and well below the $5.5 billion the White House requested for fiscal 2013.

President Obama has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk, partly because of insufficient funding for NOAA.

The measure, the first appropriations bill to make it through the House this year, would provide the full $916 million requested by the White House for NOAA's struggling Joint Polar Satellite System, which is designed to collect key weather and climate data.

But the bill would slash funding for the agency's climate change website, Climate.gov.

The House voted 219-189 Tuesday to accept a proposal from Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) to cut $542,000 for the site, keeping its funding level. NOAA had sought to increase the site's budget by 56 percent, to more than $1 million, in 2013.

Support for Harris' amendment broke along party lines, with just three Democrats -- Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah), Kathy Hochul (N.Y.) and Bill Owens (N.Y.) -- voting yes.

Harris, who read an excerpt of a Climate.gov article on drought during a floor speech, said it was "not a scientific article -- it's something to read to my children at bedtime."

The House also approved an amendment, 209-199, from Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) to transfer $18 million from the agency's climate and weather programs to the Justice Department.

Lawmakers also took a bite out of climate change activities at the National Science Foundation. They voted 238-188 Wednesday in favor of an amendment from Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.) that would bar NSF from spending money on climate change education programs, which he called "duplicative."

The bill would provide $17.5 billion for NASA, including $1.8 billion for its Earth science division.

Last week, the National Academy of Sciences released a report warning that the nation's stable of Earth-observing satellites is entering a period of "rapid decline" spurred by years of budget shortfalls.

In 2007, the science academy laid out a list of 17 high-priority satellite missions and recommended a budget of $2 billion per year for NASA's Earth science division, the same amount the agency spent on that account in 2002.

But in the ensuing five years, the space agency has not won more than roughly $1.5 billion per year from Congress for its Earth science programs.