Science policy this week: June 30, 2025

What’s Ahead

Three men in suits stand behind a podium that reads, "HUD's New Home in VA." A sign behind them reads, "The New Golden Age of HUD." — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (center) speaks at a press conference announcing the takeover of the National Science Foundation’s headquarters by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD

NSF to be booted from headquarters, aims to stay in VA

The Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to take over the National Science Foundation’s headquarters building in Alexandria, Virginia, officials announced at a surprise press conference last week. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said at the event that some of the potential sites in Virginia originally offered to HUD would be suggested to NSF, which currently has more than 1,800 employees and moved to Alexandria from nearby Arlington in 2017. Many NSF staff gathered at the press conference to protest the decision, and the agency’s union blasted the takeover. “NSF employees are being displaced with no plan, no communication, and no respect,” the union stated. The union also said it was told HUD Secretary Scott Turner’s plans include construction of a new executive dining room, reserved parking spaces for his five cars, and a potential gym for him and his family. Turner denied these claims at the press conference and defended the move as necessary given that HUD’s current home in Washington, DC, has long been in a state of disrepair.

Democrats in Congress were quick to criticize the move, with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) condemning the “luxury upgrades” for the HUD secretary. Democrats from Virginia’s congressional delegation are seeking details about NSF’s displacement from the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate. GSA official Michael Peters said at the press conference that the relocation will save taxpayers $500 million in deferred maintenance and an additional $56 million in annual operating and maintenance expenses, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) reacted by noting GSA has not offered an estimate of how much it will cost to relocate NSF. NSF is aiming to remain in northern Virginia and a move outside the DMV area is not under consideration, according to an internal memo sent last week by the agency’s acting director.

DOD, NOAA, and NIST detail major proposed science cuts

The Trump administration is asking Congress to cut the Department of Defense’s basic research programs by 9% to $2.26 billion and its applied research programs by 8% to $5.7 billion for fiscal year 2026, according to new budget request documentation released last week. (These figures exclude funds the administration presumes will be provided through the reconciliation process.) The budget document also indicates that DOD used the wide discretion provided by Congress in its fiscal year 2025 appropriations to reduce the department’s applied research budget by 17% from fiscal year 2024 to 2025.

The Commerce Department has also just finished posting its budget request documents, including those for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The administration proposes eliminating NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and transferring some of its programs to the National Ocean Service and the National Weather Service. In total, the document calls for cutting more than 2,200 positions from NOAA, roughly 18% of the agency. At NIST, the request details how the administration’s proposed cut of around 30% to the agency would require slashing hundreds of staff positions from the agency’s laboratory programs.

Meanwhile, House appropriators are gearing up to advance their own science spending proposals. They have scheduled markups for next week that will cover the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, NOAA, NIST, and NASA.

$150 million for DOE AI R&D added to Senate reconciliation bill

Senate Republicans released the full text of their reconciliation bill late last week and are pushing to pass it this week. Among the changes made as the bill approached the Senate floor is the addition of $150 million for the Department of Energy to get scientific data ready for use in AI models and “initiate seed efforts for self-improving artificial intelligence models for science and engineering.” The models developed by DOE in partnership with the private sector will be provided to the research community via a cloud computing service called the “American science cloud.” The bill also proposes expanding compensation eligibility for people exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons testing and manufacturing, including adding affected areas and modifying qualifying cancers. Provisions that have been the focus of last-minute negotiations include efforts to institute a moratorium on state regulation of AI and roll back tax credits for certain clean energy technologies.

Other portions of the bill relevant to R&D policy include tax breaks for private R&D and funding for a Golden Dome missile defense shield, similar to the House’s bill passed late last month. The Senate bill also proposes modifying the current 1.4% endowment tax on some private colleges and universities’ net investment income to introduce a tiered system of rates, with a top rate of 8% for institutions with endowments exceeding $2 million per student, compared to the House’s proposed rate of 21%. The Senate bill also proposes a nearly $10 billion boost for human exploration at NASA, reauthorization of spectrum auction authority, and billions for the Coast Guard to acquire new icebreakers.

AIP tool measures federal science workforce

The American Institute of Physics released an interactive tool this month that breaks down the types of appointments and lengths of service of federal employees in the physical sciences and engineering, as well as the number and occupations of employees at agencies that oversee physical sciences research. AIP built the tool using data from the Office of Personnel Management to help understand the composition of the federal workforce prior to and following major cuts and changes made in 2025. The tool includes data up until September 2024, the latest available from OPM, and will be updated as newer data is posted.

Also on our radar

The Trump administration has cut subscriptions to Springer Nature journals held by NIH, DOE, and USDA, according to reporting by Science.
The Senate confirmed Paul Dabbar as deputy secretary of commerce last week on a vote largely split along party lines. Dabbar previously served as DOE’s under secretary for science during the first Trump administration.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration last week over an OMB regulation it has used to cancel grant funding, including at science agencies.
Republicans on the House Science Committee have asked GAO to assess the implementation of recent research security requirements and to review agencies’ approaches to setting indirect costs for federal research awards.
NIH is reinstating hundreds of canceled grants and halting further grant terminations following a federal judge’s ruling.