Science Policy This Week: June 15, 2026

What’s Ahead

John_Joseph_Moakley_United_States_Courthouse_September_2024.png — The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Wikimedia Commons / 4300streetcar / CC BY 4.0

Federal judge rules H-1B fee is unlawful

A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee last week, ruling that the charge functioned as an unconstitutional tax and is outside the executive branch’s scope of authority. The H-1B program is used by employers to temporarily employ skilled foreign workers, including scientists and researchers. The decision contradicts a ruling from a different federal court in December that upheld the fee.

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation in September 2025 adding a $100,000 charge for new H-1B petitions on top of the existing fees of a few thousand dollars. This move was quickly challenged in two lawsuits — one led by a coalition of 20 states, and the other led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and groups representing research institutions. A Washington, DC, federal judge rejected the Chamber of Commerce’s bid to block the fee, ruling last year that the President has broad power to regulate immigration. The Trump administration is expected to appeal last week’s decision on the states’ lawsuit, but for now, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may no longer collect the $100,000 fee. Separately, a federal court in Rhode Island recently vacated a Trump administration policy pausing work permits, green cards, and other benefits for US-based applicants who are nationals of the 39 countries on which Trump imposed a travel ban last year. Trump’s travel ban remains in effect.

NIH staff document ongoing disruptions

Current and former National Institutes of Health staff published a document last week outlining issues that continue to disrupt work at the agency under the Trump administration. The letter marks one year since the Bethesda Declaration, an open letter that urged Director Jay Bhattacharya to reverse grant terminations, political review of grants, capping indirect cost rates, and firing staff. The “one year later” document, which lists 39 authors and 27 additional supporters, states that “the chaos of 2025 has been replaced with coordinated, systematic, institutionalized destruction in 2026” and “our initial concerns have only deepened.” Political reviews are delaying notices of research funding opportunities and slowing the approval of awards, and Bhattacharya’s “Unified Funding Strategy” instructs NIH institutes to reduce the influence of peer review scores and expert feedback on funding decisions, the document states. The document also raises concerns about the agency’s workforce, citing “extreme staff shortages” and the new Schedule Policy/Career designation that will make it easier to fire “policy-influencing” staff, which the document says includes “frontline staff and managers involved in regular scientific administrative work.”

NIH responded in an emailed statement that “Director Bhattacharya is committed to transparency, open inquiry, and constructive debate and remains open to continuing direct conversations with the authors of the Bethesda Declaration to discuss their concerns firsthand.”

DOE finalizes strategy for commercial fusion

The Department of Energy published the final version of its national fusion science and technology roadmap last week. The roadmap describes how DOE plans to accelerate fusion energy development, deploying fusion pilot plants and commercial power systems by the mid-2030s. The roadmap identifies multiple science and technology challenges that need to be solved, including challenges related to complex plasma and containment physics. The recently created Office of Fusion will oversee the development and implementation of the roadmap, which also ties into DOE’s Genesis Mission.

The roadmap reflects the objectives for fusion energy sciences identified in the 2020 long-range plan and a 2021 National Academies report. However, the roadmap adds that it factors in significant developments since those reports, including increased private investment in fusion, rapid deployment of data centers and AI infrastructure, and delays to large-scale international fusion experiments, including ITER. “ITER remains a part of the U.S. fusion energy development strategy,” but the private sector provides new opportunities for federal investment, the roadmap states. The president’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 proposes a 55% cut to ITER funding and a 7% increase for fusion research funding.

The rollout of the final roadmap comes a few weeks after JP Allain, inaugural director of the Office of Fusion, left the department. A press release announcing Allain’s departure said he was “instrumental” in the creation of the roadmap. Allain was previously director of fusion energy sciences at DOE. The agency has not announced Allain’s successor to lead the Office of Fusion.

Also on our radar

The House appropriations bill for DOD advanced out of subcommittee and is scheduled for a full committee markup next week.
DOE plans to announce the first Genesis Mission awards on July 22, according to the department’s chief of staff.
A court last week restored 11 clean-energy grants terminated by DOE in October, in addition to the seven restored in April. DOE originally canceled more than 300 awards, mostly in Democrat-led states.
A National Academies committee on attribution science, which links climate conditions to human or other causes, is under scrutiny from conservative groups, according to reporting from Politico.
NIH is seeking input on a proposed policy to cap the number of research grants an individual researcher can lead at one time. Comments are due by Aug. 3.
Tennessee implemented the first state-level regulatory framework for commercial nuclear fusion last week. The state is preparing for a fusion pilot power plant near Oak Ridge National Lab that could begin construction as soon as 2028, the press release states.
GAO found that probationary employees left agencies at higher rates than other federal employees last year following White House directives to reduce the federal workforce.

What OMB’s Uniform Guidance proposal means for research

On Wednesday at 4:00 pm, AIP’s Federation team will host a webinar on the White House Office of Management and Budget’s recent Uniform Grants Regulation proposal , which would be the most significant revision to federal grant administration in years. Experts from AIP, APS, and FYI will discuss key proposed changes, potential implications for federally funded research, and how to participate in the public comment process before the July 13 deadline. This event is open to the public. Register here.

All events are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.

Monday, June 15

National Academies: Review of progress toward implementing the Earth Science Decadal Survey: Economic and societal value of NASA Earth observation data
9:00 am - 6:00 pm

National Academies: Board on Earth Sciences and Resources meeting: Continental drilling for resource exploration and management
1:00 - 5:00 pm

Hudson: The Code as Witness: COVID origins, scientific accountability, and preventing the next pandemic
1:00 - 2:00 pm

Tuesday, June 16

NIST: Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology meeting (continues Wednesday)

NIST: Artificial Intelligence for Materials Science (AIMS) Workshop 2026 (continues Wednesday)

NTSA: Congressional Modeling and Simulation Leadership Summit
7:30 am - 6:15 pm

NSF SECURE Center: SPARK + FBI webinar on China
2:00 - 3:00 pm

Senate: The future of K-12 education in the age of AI
2:00 pm, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

Senate: Hearing to examine Army force modernization in review of the FY2027 NDAA
4:15 pm, Armed Services Committee

Wednesday, June 17

Senate: Hearing to consider the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act and other bills
10:00 am, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

AIP: What OMB’s Uniform Guidance proposal means for research
4:00 pm

Thursday, June 18

No events.

Friday, June 19

Juneteenth, federal holiday.

Monday, June 22

Harvard: Shadow of catastrophe and the future of nuclear deterrence
12:00 - 1:30 pm

Opportunities

Deadlines indicated in parentheses. Newly added opportunities are marked with a diamond.

Job Openings

◆Anthropic: Data scientist, policy (ongoing)
National Academies: Senior program officer, Science and Technology Policy and Law (ongoing)
ACS: Congressional fellowship (ongoing)
APLU: Assistant vice president for governmental affairs (ongoing)
AIP: Director of science policy news (ongoing)
AAAS: Project manager, Center for STEMM Education and Workforce (June 19)
AAAS: Senior editor (July 3)

Solicitations

SciLight: Call for science policy ideas for ‘The Science Fix’ project (ongoing)
NIST: Call for letters of interest to join NIST AI Consortium (ongoing)
USGS: Call for nominations for the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee (June 18)
APS: Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach nominations (June 26)
NSF: RFC on Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program (June 27)
AAS: Nominations for 2027 AAS prizes (June 30)
NASA: RFC on addressing DEI discrimination by federal contractors (July 6)
NASA: RFC on NASA Front Door (July 6)
OMB: RFC on regulation for federal financial assistance (July 13)
NOAA: Call for nominations for the Ocean Exploration Advisory Board (July 17)
◆NSF: RFC for the Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Program (July 11)
◆NIH: RFI on capping the number of simultaneous research project grants per principal investigator (Aug. 3)

Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

Do you have a story to tell about how science policy is impacting you?

AIP’s research team is gathering first-hand accounts from scientists, engineers, students, and staff whose careers have been affected by policy and funding changes over the past year. Volunteers can submit their stories via this online form. Participants’ stories will be added to the Niels Bohr Library & Archives digital repository as searchable, citable records — with options for anonymity and a five-year embargo period. Read more about the initiative here.

Around the Web

News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.

Federal judge rules H-1B fee is unlawful

NIH staff document ongoing disruptions

DOE finalizes strategy for commercial fusion

Also on our radar

What OMB’s Uniform Guidance proposal means for research

Monday, June 15

Tuesday, June 16

Wednesday, June 17

Thursday, June 18

Friday, June 19

Monday, June 22

Job Openings

Solicitations

Do you have a story to tell about how science policy is impacting you?

White House

Congress

Science, Society, and the Economy

Education and Workforce

Research Management

Labs and Facilities

Computing and Communications

Space

Weather, Climate, and Environment

Energy

Defense

Biomedical

International Affairs