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NASA's historical PBR request vs. Congressional appropriation

A chart comparing NASA's budgets in real-year (non inflation-adjusted) dollars as proposed by the President and as appropriated by Congress. Except in the aftermath of Challenger, Congress has never exceeded a NASA budget proposal by more than 9% nor cut it by more than 11% relative to the request.

The President's budget request for NASA is strongly correlated with final congressional appropriations. On average, Congress appropriates about 2% less than what the White House requests for the space agency. It has never increased funding by more than 9%, nor cut it by more than 11%, relative to the proposal. The one outlier is in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, which occurred after the budget request had been prepared. Congress provided NASA with an up-front allocation to build a new Shuttle orbiter, accounting for the apparent spike in funding in FY 1987. Values are in real-year dollars (not adjusted for inflation).

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