Science policy this week: June 16, 2025

What’s Ahead

US and China flags — A table setting from a meeting of U.S. and Chinese officials. The two countries are reportedly in the process of finalizing an agreement on export controls and student visas.

DOD

Visa access for Chinese students part of pending US-China trade deal

In a social media post last week, President Donald Trump said he has reached a preliminary agreement with China that would allow Chinese students to continue attending U.S. universities in exchange for U.S. access to magnets and rare earth materials sourced from China, among other provisions. China placed export restrictions on such materials in response to tariffs and export controls that Trump implemented earlier this year.

Amid escalating trade tensions in late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. will “aggressively revoke” visas held by Chinese students enrolled at U.S. universities, including those studying in “critical fields.” A State Department spokesperson indicated the decision was related to concerns about the Chinese government’s “exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property, or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection, or repress voices of opposition.”

The U.S. government has previously cited such concerns as justification for restricting visas to Chinese students, such as in a policy issued by Trump in 2020 that bars visas for Chinese students and visiting researchers with connections to institutions believed to have close ties to the Chinese military. Despite this policy, Trump insisted in his social media post last week that Chinese enrollment at U.S. universities “HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!” There are currently around 277,000 students from China in the U.S., and China was the biggest source of international students in the U.S. for many years until being surpassed by India in 2023.

NSF budget targeted for clawbacks

The White House has set in motion an effort to freeze more than $30 billion in spending across several agencies, including the National Science Foundation and NASA, E&E News reported last week. The move affects research and education programs at NSF that use funding left over from 2024 as well as more than $100 million of science spending at NASA, according to the report. The move is a precursor to the White House submitting a spending “deferral” request to Congress, a legal mechanism to temporarily delay the use of funds. The delayed funding could later be included in a rescissions request like the one Congress is currently considering, which would claw back $9.4 billion for foreign aid, NPR, and PBS.

NIH does 540° turn on anti-DEI and boycott policy

Last week, the National Institutes of Health rescinded a policy from April that restricts grantees from operating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and bars them from boycotting Israeli entities. Unusually, NIH briefly reinstated the policy before again rescinding it without explanation. The National Science Foundation implemented a similar restriction in May that is still in effect. The DEI restrictions respond to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in January.

DOE secretary to testify on budget as Republicans assemble reconciliation bill

Energy Secretary Chris Wright will testify on Wednesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal year 2026. DOE has begun to release more details on its request, though as of publication time, it has not released the full documentation for the Office of Science, which it has proposed to cut by 14% to about $7 billion. Wright is appearing before the committee as it prepares to advance its portion of Senate Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which is proceeding in parallel with the annual appropriations process. Last week, Committee Chair Mike Lee (R-UT) released the draft text, which includes provisions that would rescind unobligated funds from various energy technology programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Also on our radar

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order for the U.S. to establish a standard for supersonic aircraft noise and coordinate supersonic research. President Trump also signed executive orders to expand routine commercial drone operations and strengthen wildfire preparedness and response using AI and innovative modeling.
Kseniia Petrova, a Harvard researcher from Russia who was charged with smuggling frog embryos, was released from federal custody on bail last week. Petrova had been detained since February after her J-1 visa was summarily revoked by a customs agent; the judge in her case has since ruled that revocation was illegal.
The National Institutes of Health released a new budget plan that will give more grant recipients their full funding money up-front, but also result in a smaller number of grants being given out. The new plan was laid out in the agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget plan.
The National Science Foundation announced that an additional 500 Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards were given this year. This addition brings the total awards to approximately 1,500 for the 2025-2026 cohort, still down from the 2,000-3,000 that were typically offered in recent years.