
The tethered balloon flight at one of the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement observatories. DOE’s budget request proposes terminating ARM activities.
Brent Peterson, Antigravity Films, LLC / DOE ARM user facility
More science budget details emerging
The Trump administration is continuing to elaborate on its budget requests for science programs for fiscal year 2026. The Department of Energy has released a summary document
DOE’s request also includes a 25% increase for isotope R&D and production, level funding for advanced scientific computing research, and smaller cuts elsewhere. The department has begun to post more detailed budget documents here.
Details are emerging for other science agencies as well. The National Institutes of Health released a budget request document
Meanwhile, lawmakers are beginning to advance their own spending proposals. The House Appropriations Committee will consider
Senate pitching $10 billion boost for NASA, clawbacks from NOAA
Senate Commerce Committee Republicans have included nearly $10 billion for NASA in their draft contribution
Aside from the NASA provisions, the Senate bill would rescind certain unobligated funds for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that were appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act. The original appropriated amounts included $2.6 billion for climate resilience, $150 million for facilities, $150 million for forecasts, and $50 million for climate research, though it is unclear what proportion of the funds is unobligated. A summary
The reconciliation bill would also restore the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction spectrum through 2034. The summary adds that it would require the FCC to auction at least 800 megahertz within eight years and would authorize $50 million to study the value of certain bands. The bill also specifies some bands that will be excluded from consideration for auction. Separately, the bill would provide the Coast Guard with billions of dollars for acquiring new icebreakers, a type of ship that is used to resupply the National Science Foundation’s coastal base in Antarctica, among other missions.
Trump issues travel ban, tries again to block foreign student enrollment at Harvard
President Donald Trump issued two proclamations impacting international students and researchers in quick succession last week. The first is a travel ban
The second proclamation
Astronomers gather in Alaska
The 246th meeting
Also on our radar
- Members of 12 federal advisory committees at NSF that were eliminated
- NIST’s primary advisory committee will meet
- A study offering a 40-year vision
- A National Academies study on ways to improve the process of correcting and retracting scientific papers
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced last week his plans to transform
- The Government Accountability Office released a report
All events are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.
Monday, June 9
American Astronomical Society: 246th meeting
RAND: Deep seabed mining webinar
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Hudson Institute: Why the US needs to win the biotechnology race against the CCP
2:00 - 3:00 pm
Tuesday, June 10
NIST: Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology meeting
BIS: Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
House: DOD budget request hearing
9:30 am, Appropriations Committee
Senate: NIH budget request hearing
10:00 am, Appropriations Committee
House: DOE budget request hearing
10:00 am, Energy and Commerce Committee
Senate: Hearing on the nomination of Jacob Helberg to be under secretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment
10:00 am, Foreign Relations Committee
House: Securing Americans’ genetic information: Privacy and national security concerns surrounding 23andMe’s bankruptcy sale
10:00 am, Oversight and Government Reform Committee
ITIF: Webinar on defending US technology leadership from nontariff attacks
10:00 - 11:30 am
Brookings: Promoting high-quality K-12 STEM instruction to prepare students for the future
12:30 - 1:30 pm
SpaceNews: A conversation with Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA)
3:30 - 4:00 pm
Wednesday, June 11
APS: Thriving Departments Symposium
FDGC: 2025 National Geospatial Advisory Committee meeting
National Academies: Air Force Studies Board summer 2025 meeting
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Senate: DOD budget request hearing
10:00 am, Appropriations Committee
Senate: Department of the Interior budget request hearing
10:00 am, Energy and Natural Resources Committee
House: Clearing the path: Reforming procurement to accelerate defense innovation
10:00 am, Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Senate: 23 and you: The privacy and national security implications of the 23andMe bankruptcy
10:15 am, Judiciary Committee
National Academies: Expanded US electron beam usage in sterilization and irradiation applications: Assessing opportunities and challenges, meeting three
12:00 - 5:00 pm
National Academies: Elementary particle physics: Progress and promise, report release webinar
1:00 - 2:00 pm
National Academies: Evolving geodigital data: Opportunities, challenges, and disruptions
1:00 - 5:05 pm
House: Meeting to consider bills relating to wildfire monitoring, quantum cryptography, small-business AI, and NOAA forecasting
2:00 pm, Science Committee
AEI: Health policy under the new administration
4:00 - 5:15 pm
NSTA: 2025 STEM policy landscape
7:00 - 8:00 pm
Thursday, June 12
Institut Pasteur: Paris Conference on Risks from Mirror Life
National Academies: Fulfilling the public mission of the land grant system: Building platforms for collaboration and impact
Science|Business: Securing Europe: What should the EU prioritise to support its critical sectors?
8:00 - 11:30 am
House: DOD and DHS appropriations bill markup
9:00 am, Appropriations Committee
House: Bureau of Industry and Security FY26 budget: Export controls and the AI arms race
10:00 am, Foreign Affairs Committee
House: Powering demand: Nuclear solutions for AI infrastructure
10:00 am, Science Committee
House: Department of the Interior budget request hearing
10:00 am, Natural Resources Committee
House: DOD budget request hearing
10:00 am, Armed Services Committee
Cato Institute: What is the opportunity cost of state AI policy?
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Stimson Center: A future without nuclear weapons
12:30 - 1:30 pm
National Academies: Future directions for NSF’s advanced cyberinfrastructure, meeting five
3:30 - 5:00 pm
Friday, June 13
No events.
Monday, June 16
ICSSI: International Conference on the Science of Science and Innovation 2025
National Academies: Convocation on the status of informal science and engineering education
National Academies: Corrections and Retractions Study Committee, kickoff meeting
Deadlines indicated in parentheses. Newly added opportunities are marked with a diamond.
On April 15, the Trump administration extended
Job Openings
◆Fermilab: Adviser for government relations
◆Fermilab: Division head, partners and technology transfer
◆Pew Research Center: Associate director, science and society
◆MOST Policy Initiative: Executive director, Missouri S&T Policy initiative
◆Senate Republicans: Legislative assistant, science and other issues
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): Legislative assistant, science policy
ControlAI: Policy advisor, AI safety and security
APS: Associate editor, quantum science and technologies
OpenAI: Director of public sector partner management
◆Association of American Universities: Associate vice president for government relations and public policy
Solicitations
◆House Science Committee: Survey of individuals whose grants have been canceled
Grant Watch: Collection form for NSF grant cancellations
Grant Watch: Collection form for NIH grant cancellations
AAS: Grant cancellation survey
AAAS: Assessing the impacts of federal policies on the US STEMM community
APS: Survey collecting stories about the positive impact of federally funded research
DOE: RFC on rescinding regulations for loans for minority business enterprises seeking DOE contracts and assistance
American Science Acceleration Project: RFI for the American Science Acceleration Project
State Department: RFC on J-1 visa waiver recommendation application
◆NIH: RFI on the NIH artificial intelligence strategy
Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.
White House
New York Times: The White House gutted science funding. Now it wants to ‘correct’ research
Stat: Trump’s ‘gold standard’ order is a blueprint for politicizing science
AP: Trump’s new drone orders aim to counter threats while encouraging flying cars and supersonic flights
American Nuclear Society: Findings of the ANS expert advisory group on recent executive orders about nuclear energy
FedScoop: DOGE will ‘be far more institutionalized’ at agencies, OMB director says
E&E News: Budget documents reveal plan to grow DOGE
White House: Proposed rescission of budget authority
Congress
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Time for Congress to save American science … and the nation
Senate Commerce Committee: National Weather Service partial rehire plan isn’t good enough, says Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
New York Times: New bill would make most National Weather Service workers hard to fire
House Science Committee: Republicans probe $27 billion Biden-era EPA climate fund amid oversight, favoritism concerns
Wall Street Journal: Congress wasted taxpayer dollars on Sematech in 1987. The 2022 Chips and Science Act is a repeat
Science, Society, and the Economy
E&E News: ‘State of the science’ under Trump? National Academies’ president plays it safe
Ars Technica: Facing an extreme budget, the National Academies hosted an event that ignored it
Eos: Former DOE science director reflects on a changing landscape
Research Professional: Replacing US leadership means tackling fundamental questions about universities’ role in society
IEEE Spectrum: The birth of the university as innovation incubator
Education and Workforce
CNN: NIH employees publish ‘Bethesda Declaration’ in dissent of Trump administration policies
Chronicle of Higher Education: Why this is the most damaging time to restrict student visas
Nature: ‘You’re just not welcome’: Researchers grapple with US plan to revoke Chinese student visas
University World News: US visa freeze upends study plans for Chinese students
Washington Post: Stanford is a case study in how Beijing infiltrates US universities
New York Times: As the Trump administration slashes federal spending, scientists consider leaving the US
Wall Street Journal: Trump’s crackdown on foreign students threatens to disrupt pipeline of inventors
New York Times: China really wants to attract talented scientists. Trump just helped
Nature: How China is vying to attract the world’s top scientific talent
Science: New National Academies board will wade into math wars
Washington Post: Universities and the government: Which needs the other more?
Politico: Fired HHS employees allege terminations were based on ‘error-ridden’ personnel records
Research Management
Nature: Trump moves to slash NSF: Why are the proposed budget cuts so big?
Science: Williams College is first to decline federal science grants because of new DEI language
Nature: ‘We were ready for this’: Meet the scientists suing the Trump administration to reinstate terminated grants
Chemical & Engineering News: At Columbia University, chemical scientists are dismayed by funding cuts
Chemical & Engineering News: Scientists worry about possible publishing ban by HHS
The Conversation: Reproducibility may be the key idea students need to balance trust in evidence with healthy skepticism
Retraction Watch: NIH-funded replication studies are not the answer to the reproducibility crisis in pre-clinical research
Nature: Science-integrity project will root out bad medical papers ‘and tell everyone’
Labs and Facilities
Tri-City Herald: More furloughs, possible layoffs at Pacific Northwest National Lab after Trump proposal
NASA Watch: Stop work orders at NASA JPL
CERN: CERN sets new environmental objectives for 2030
Computing and Communications
HPCwire: AI agents to drive scientific discovery within a year, OpenAI CEO predicts
Nature: Start-up FutureHouse debuts powerful AI ‘reasoning model’ for science
MIT Technology Review: What’s next for AI and math
Export Compliance Daily: New AI diffusion rule will let allies buy US chips with conditions, commerce head says
HPCwire: Japan delegation visits Illinois to deepen quantum innovation ties
Space
Scientific American: Proposed federal budget would devastate US space science
Friends of NASA: 19 active science missions canceled in NASA’s FY2026 budget request
Nature: How Trump’s budget cuts could derail global science collaboration
SpaceNews: NASA withdraws support for conferences
Nature: Trump wants to put humans on Mars — here’s what scientists think
SpaceNews: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts
Barron’s: Trump makes threats. SpaceX is too big to cancel
SpaceNews: Isaacman: People with ‘axes to grind’ about Musk caused withdrawn NASA nomination
NASA Watch: Is NASA pivoting toward Space Force?
Scientific American: Is NASA ready for death in space?
Weather, Climate, and Environment
E&E News: After slashing staff, NWS can now hire to fill 126 jobs
E&E News: NWS hires won’t make up for Trump cuts, meteorologists say
Roll Call: Senate Environment reconciliation provisions pause methane tax
E&E News: ‘Sitting duck’? Meet an EPA environmental justice staffer
E&E News: EPA’s new AI tool disagrees with Administrator Zeldin on climate change
Wired: How to prepare for a climate disaster in Trump’s America
Inside Climate News: People using apps like iNaturalist and Merlin are helping fuel scientific discovery
BBC News: Can science save our oceans?
Chemical & Engineering News: New declaration calls for commitment to greener chemistry
Energy
Holland & Knight: Full FY 2026 budget reorients DOE around nuclear and hard infrastructure
MIT Technology Review: Over $1 billion in federal funding got slashed for this polluting industry: cement
E&E News: AI turbocharges US hunt for minerals, fossil fuels
Inside Climate News: Aging Pennsylvania power plant to keep running after Trump order on eve of shutdown
E&E News: ‘Perfect storm.’ Solar industry shrinks growth forecasts
Defense
E&E News: Senate confirms Pentagon energy, environment nominee
Wired: The race to build Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system is on
CSIS: America’s ‘Golden Dome’ explained
Inside Defense: Pentagon cancels Golden Dome industry summit two weeks after presidential launch
DefenseScoop: Space Force taps BAE Systems for next phase of MEO missile-warning satellite program
New York Times: Trump administration seeks nuclear arms budget hike as science funds are cut
Breaking Defense: Less ships, more bombs: Senate unveils its version of $150 billion defense reconciliation package
Washington Post: NASA, Pentagon push for SpaceX alternatives amid Trump’s feud with Musk
Wall Street Journal: The Pentagon disinformation that fueled America’s UFO mythology
Biomedical
New York Times: Here are the nearly 2,500 medical research grants canceled or delayed by Trump
Stat: Rewriting of COVID vaccine recommendations has doctors and other experts worried
New York Times: Kennedy says ‘charlatans’ are no reason to block unproven stem cell treatments
Stat: Dismantling CDC’s chronic disease center ‘looks pretty devastating’ to public health experts
Scientific American: What will happen to opioid and drug overdose deaths after CDC cuts?
Stat: Do you remember the Human Genome Project? I’m not sure the Trump administration wants you to
GAO: Public health preparedness: HHS needs a coordinated national approach for diagnostic testing for pandemic threats
Stat: Ending US global health research partnerships will cost America
International Affairs
Science|Business: Trump budget cuts hit CERN and other global science partnerships
Research Professional: Applying for US funding: All is not lost
Bloomberg: Lutnick urges tougher enforcement of US export curbs on China
Research Professional: Bill Gates vows to spend most of remaining fortune in Africa
Nature: Africa has a new space agency: Here’s what it will do
Science|Business: Commission urges member states to boost R&D investments
ITIF: Germany’s new digital ministry will make or break the government’s AI ambitions