Democrats Outline Priorities for Next Congress’ House Science Committee

With the Nov. 3 election less than three weeks away, Democratic lawmakers are hoping to reverse Trump administration policies targeting science agencies and funding if they gain control of Congress.

The current administration has “really taken a sledgehammer to the foundation of science research and innovation, and we’re going to need to try and put the pieces back together,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Midterm elections are less than three weeks away, and Lofgren is poised to become chair of the committee in the next Congress if current polling holds. She and fellow Democratic lawmakers identified three key priorities regarding science: restoring funding, shoring up the researcher workforce, and investigating administration officials.

“The misconduct on the part of the administration is quite severe,” Lofgren said.

Since entering office in January 2025, the Trump administration has rescinded research grants from universities, laid off large swaths of the federal workforce, and defunded scientific agencies. Federal entities also broadly stripped language prohibiting “political interference” from scientific integrity policies, FYI reported in September.

FYI did not receive replies to requests for comment from Republican members of the House Science Committee regarding their priorities in the next Congress.

Reverse ‘damage’ from Trump Administration

In a flipped Congress, the House Science Committee would prioritize reversing “the tremendous damage that the administration has done to the science enterprise,” Lofgren said. In particular, she called for halting a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would overhaul federal grantmaking, as well as removing budgetary restrictions on science agencies like NASA and NOAA. Congress delayed the OMB rule in September.

Lofgren said the Science Committee has continued to operate with a bipartisan focus since the last election, but many of its main efforts have been stalled by Republican House leadership.

“It’s hard to criticize the president of your own party — I know, because I’ve done it,” she said. “But the majority has been rather silent in criticizing publicly the really atrocious behavior of the administration.”

If Democrats take control of the chamber, Lofgren hopes several bills that passed the committee this Congress — including on quantum and artificial intelligence — will get another chance to reach the full House for a vote.

House Science Committee member Bill Foster (D-IL), who represents Argonne National Lab and Fermilab, said his constituents are particularly worried about delayed grants and changes to the federal workforce. In 2025, most federal agencies saw employee numbers drop by more than 10% — with some seeing as much as a 30% drop — according to the Government Accountability Office.

A September lawsuit from 17 researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health claims the agency is using a list of 235 forbidden keywords to cancel grants.

Foster, who is the only PhD physicist in Congress, said the Trump administration “seems to have a particular hatred for universities in general.”

The administration’s targeting of some universities, such as Harvard, for grant terminations also seems likely to draw hearings. Lofgren said she is particularly interested in grant cuts at the National Science Foundation.

“The NSF has blacklisted some of our premier research universities based on improper criteria,” Lofgren said.

With scientists facing visa challenges and restrictions on international collaborations, a new AIP report found that, in 2025, physics PhD graduates left the US at the highest rate in 30 years.

“We’re losing a whole generation of scientists,” she said.

Investigations into administration officials

Administration science officials would face more scrutiny in a flipped House. Lofgren said the committee would revisit her and Rep. Gabe Amo’s (D-RI) referral of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to the Justice Department for allegedly lying under oath at a House Science Committee hearing on June 10.

Rep. Hayley Stevens (D-MI), a Science Committee member who lost her primary election in August, said she hopes the committee will continue her efforts to remove Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Joel Widder, a former senior manager at NSF, told Science that meaningful reversals may be difficult, even if the House flips. While the House Science Democrats have plans to host a slate of hearings, many of the most impactful policies have come from executive orders. These must be overturned in the courts — or Democrats face an uphill battle to pass legislation in both chambers, Widder said.

Bolstering NIST and AI regulations

Stevens said she would like to see the House Science Committee focus on “efforts to depoliticize science ... and restore independent merit-based review.”

The next Congress should uphold the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s manufacturing work, address emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum information, and ensure that NASA succeeds in future Artemis Moon landings, she added.

The House Science Committee advanced a slew of AI-related bills in June, including the NSF AI Education Act, the Protecting Consumers from Deceptive AI Act, and the Workforce for AI Trust Act.

Foster said he supports focusing on NIST’s AI research and cybersecurity in the next Congress.

However, Foster believes the current committee system is outdated for addressing the challenges AI poses within and beyond the scientific community.

“If you look at how these are structured in other countries, you will typically have an information technology full standing committee, and a subcommittee on artificial intelligence, and maybe another subcommittee on privacy,” he said.

He doesn’t think it would be wise to overhaul the committee’s structure during the next Congress. But in the long term, he suggests a restructure would better support the future regulation of emerging science and technology in the US.