Science Policy This Week: January 26, 2026

What’s Ahead

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaking on the phone.

Francis Chung / POLITICO via AP Images

Partial government shutdown impacts DOD, NIH

A partial government shutdown began over the weekend after Congress failed to meet the midnight Friday deadline to pass a revised funding package for some federal agencies. The lapse in funding means nonessential operations have temporarily ceased at the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, among others.

Most science agencies, however, are unaffected by the shutdown as the Energy-Water, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Interior-Environment appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026 have already been signed into law. These bills cover NASA, NOAA, NIST, USGS, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, among others.

Progress toward fully funding the government was disrupted last week after Senate Democrats refused to vote for a six-bill package that authorized funding for the Department of Homeland Security after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. The Senate compromise extends DHS funding for two weeks, but separates the DHS bill from the remaining five bills, allowing more time for negotiation over potential DHS reforms.

The House Rules Committee is due to consider the funding compromise that the Senate agreed to on Friday at 4:00 pm today. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Fox News on Sunday that he is optimistic the shutdown could end as soon as tomorrow, if the Rules Committee clears the spending package for a chamber-wide vote. Passage of the bill could still be hindered by House Democrats or dissenting members of the razor-thin Republican majority. Any revisions at this stage would force the bill to pass through the Senate again, possibly further delaying passage.

DOD merges Defense Science Board and Defense Innovation Board

The Department of Defense announced last week that it will merge the Defense Science Board and the Defense Innovation Board into a new Science, Technology and Innovation Board. According to the announcement, the new board replaces the functions of the DSB and the DIB. The STIB is not yet official, and no date has been set for its first meeting. The DSB was originally established in the 1950s, while the DIB was formed in 2016. The Trump administration has been steadily closing and merging federal advisory committees over the past year.

The inaugural chair of the combined board is Milan Nikolich, who served as the director of defense research and engineering for research and technology during the first Trump administration. The 18 board members listed on the STIB website include former Air Force Chief Scientist Victoria Coleman and other former DOD officials, as well as former Los Alamos National Lab Director Michael Anastasio and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Senior Fellow James Gosler. Alicia Jackson, the current director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), is also on the board. Several board members previously served on the DSB.

DOE shares new details on reorganization

The Department of Energy announced that its new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation will have three sub-offices: the Office of Energy Technology; the Office of Critical Minerals, Materials, and Manufacturing; and the Office of Innovation, Affordability, and Consumer Choice. Audrey Robertson is leading the critical minerals and energy innovation office, and each sub-office will have a deputy assistant secretary. Robertson, who heads DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, told staff in November that the new office would include EERE and several other DOE offices under the old organization, E&E News reported. The department has not provided further details on the new offices for fusion and advanced computing, or the plan for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

House Dems investigate DOE nuclear safety changes

Democratic staff on the House Science Committee are seeking information on new directives at the Department of Energy that loosen nuclear safety regulations, including the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) standard for radiation exposure. NPR reported last week that the new rules, created in the fall and winter of last year, were shared with nuclear companies but not made publicly available. In a statement to NPR, DOE said the changes “will increase innovation in the industry without jeopardizing safety,” and that “the ALARA standards have not changed.” The statement added that rules shared with companies were early copies and that DOE anticipates publicly posting the directives later this year. Energy Secretary Chris Wright reportedly issued a memo ending ALARA earlier this month.

In response to the NPR article, Democrats on the House Science Committee said they are “investigating” DOE’s changes. “Any changes to critical safety requirements must happen through a careful, transparent process guided by the best available science,” Adam Rosenberg, House Science Democratic staff director, said in a LinkedIn post. Some scientists and nuclear energy proponents have criticized ALARA in recent years and proposed various changes to the standard. A report from Idaho National Lab last summer recommended eliminating certain ALARA requirements as part of larger radiation safety reforms.

Also on our radar

NWS Director Ken Graham said the agency is hiring again during a speech at the AMS annual meeting, but warned of a bumpy road ahead for the agency given budget constraints.
The House Science Committee will consider the NASA Reauthorization Act on Wednesday. Congress has not passed NASA reauthorization legislation since 2022.
The Senate Science Committee will consider the ORBITS Act to clean up dangerous orbital debris and the National Programmable Cloud Laboratories Network Act in a session on Tuesday.
NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya will appear before the Senate HELP Committee on Tuesday to discuss modernizing the agency.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and James Lankford (R-OK) have reintroduced the Streamlining Federal Grants Act, which aims to make it easier for under-resourced communities to access federal funding. The bill was first introduced in 2023.
House CCP Committee Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) wrote a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick with recommendations for how the agency can ensure U.S.-made chips are not used to advance China’s military. The letter criticizes U.S. tech company NVIDIA’s relationship with Chinese AI company DeepSeek.
DOE’s Climate Working Group violated federal law because it failed to hold open meetings or include a balance of viewpoints, a federal judge ruled last week. However, the judge did not act on the plaintiff’s request to block DOE or EPA from relying upon the CWG’s report to inform agency actions.