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THE WEEK OF JUNE 9, 2025
What’s Ahead
A tethered balloon flight at one of the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement observatories.

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 with some details on its proposed 14% cut to the Office of Science, which includes a 56% cut to the Biological and Environmental Research division compared to the enacted amounts for fiscal year 2024. The cut would fall heaviest on environmental research, with DOE stating it would terminate the division’s activities in Earth system modeling and its Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility while prioritizing work related to biotechnology. Energy Secretary Chris Wright criticized the national labs’ climate change research in a May budget hearing, saying, “The labs have drifted into things that are not fundamental basic science, that are political science.”

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 with new details on the administration’s proposal to cut NIH’s topline budget by nearly 40% and consolidate 27 institutes and centers into eight. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would see a 17% cut to funding for scientific research, and the U.S. Geological Survey would eliminate its ecosystem research programs. Budget numbers for these agencies and more will be added to FYI’s Budget Tracker as they are released.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are beginning to advance their own spending proposals. The House Appropriations Committee will consider its funding bills for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing for the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday, and both the House and Senate will hold budget hearings for DOD this week.

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 to the reconciliation legislation now awaiting Senate action. Some of the additions for NASA are at odds with the president’s budget request released May 30, including additional funds for the Gateway lunar space station, Space Launch System rockets, and a telecommunications orbiter for use in a Mars Sample Return mission, all of which would be terminated under the president’s request. The Senate bill would also increase funding for International Space Station operations, while the presidential request proposes “maintaining minimal safe operations and very limited research” on ISS.

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 of the bill calls these projects “unneeded.”

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 that will “fully restrict” foreign nationals from 12 countries from entering the U.S., with heightened visa restrictions for a further seven countries. The travel ban may particularly impact students from Iran, of which there are currently more than 12,000 in the U.S., according to data from the Institute for International Education.

The second proclamation attempts to bar incoming international students at Harvard University from entering the U.S. on the grounds that their presence would be “detrimental to the interests” of the U.S. and raise research security concerns. The proclamation comes just a few weeks after the Department of Homeland Security moved to remove Harvard’s ability to enroll international students through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. Both of these attempts to stop enrollments have been temporarily blocked in court. Association of American Universities President Barbara Snyder issued a statement criticizing both proclamations, arguing they will benefit competitor nations that are seeking to recruit talented people.

Astronomers gather in Alaska

The 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society is taking place in Anchorage, Alaska, this week. The event includes many sessions focused on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is due to release its first imagery to the public on June 23. Three NASA town halls that were planned as part of the event have been canceled, including one featuring staff from the Astrophysics Division and one on the planned Habitable Worlds Observatory, according to the online conference program. A plenary session on Thursday will address the current science policy landscape and advocacy opportunities for astronomers. (AAS is an AIP Member Society.)

Also on our radar

  • Members of 12 federal advisory committees at NSF that were eliminated earlier this year have written to agency leaders and Congress highlighting the importance of independent scientific advice and urging that the committees be reinstated.
  • NIST’s primary advisory committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss ways the agency is aligning with the goals of the Trump administration and ongoing workplace safety initiatives, among other subjects.
  • A study offering a 40-year vision for the future of U.S. research programs in elementary particle physics will be released by the National Academies on Wednesday.
  • A National Academies study on ways to improve the process of correcting and retracting scientific papers is kicking off next Monday and Tuesday.
  • Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced last week his plans to transform the U.S. AI Safety Institute within NIST into the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, shifting its focus from AI regulation to enhancing U.S. AI innovation.
  • The Government Accountability Office released a report last week evaluating the success and potential growth areas of the Manufacturing USA Program. GAO recommended that DOD and DOE improve their tracking of the timeframes for reviewing project funding and membership requests.
In Case You Missed It

The National Academies plans to pitch ideas for reducing administrative burdens to the White House.

From Physics Today: Aiming to bring on PhD students who they can keep commitments to, universities are adjusting their admissions processes and offers.

Upcoming Events

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 (continues through Thursday)

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 (continues Wednesday)

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 (continues through Friday)

FDGC: 2025 National Geospatial Advisory Committee meeting (continues Wednesday)

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 (continues Friday)

National Academies: Fulfilling the public mission of the land grant system: Building platforms for collaboration and impact (continues Friday)

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 (continues through Wednesday)

National Academies: Convocation on the status of informal science and engineering education (continues Tuesday)

National Academies: Corrections and Retractions Study Committee, kickoff meeting (continues Tuesday)

Opportunities

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

On April 15, the Trump administration extended the federal hiring freeze into the summer.

Job Openings

Fermilab: Adviser for government relations (ongoing)
Fermilab: Division head, partners and technology transfer (ongoing)
Pew Research Center: Associate director, science and society (ongoing)
MOST Policy Initiative: Executive director, Missouri S&T Policy initiative (ongoing)
Senate Republicans: Legislative assistant, science and other issues (ongoing)
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): Legislative assistant, science policy (ongoing)
ControlAI: Policy advisor, AI safety and security (ongoing)
APS: Associate editor, quantum science and technologies (ongoing)
OpenAI: Director of public sector partner management (ongoing)
Association of American Universities: Associate vice president for government relations and public policy (June 25)

Solicitations

House Science Committee: Survey of individuals whose grants have been canceled (ongoing)
Grant Watch: Collection form for NSF grant cancellations (ongoing)
Grant Watch: Collection form for NIH grant cancellations (ongoing)
AAS: Grant cancellation survey (ongoing)
AAAS: Assessing the impacts of federal policies on the US STEMM community (ongoing)
APS: Survey collecting stories about the positive impact of federally funded research (ongoing)
DOE: RFC on rescinding regulations for loans for minority business enterprises seeking DOE contracts and assistance (June 16)
American Science Acceleration Project: RFI for the American Science Acceleration Project (June 30)
State Department: RFC on J-1 visa waiver recommendation application (July 14)
NIH: RFI on the NIH artificial intelligence strategy (July 15)

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

Around the Web

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 (perspective by Jacob Carter and Gretchen Goldman)
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 (perspective)
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 (perspective by John Holdren and Neal Lane)
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 (perspective by T.J. Rodgers)

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 (interview with Asmeret Asefaw Berhe)
Research Professional: Replacing US leadership means tackling fundamental questions about universities’ role in society (perspective by Ben Johnson)
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 (perspective by Marc Thiessen)
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? (perspective by Carole LaBonne)
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 (perspective by Sarah Supp, et al.)
Retraction Watch: NIH-funded replication studies are not the answer to the reproducibility crisis in pre-clinical research (perspective by Mike Rossner)
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 (perspective by Kathleen Curlee)
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? (audio)
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 (perspective by Zachary Utz)
GAO: Public health preparedness: HHS needs a coordinated national approach for diagnostic testing for pandemic threats (report)
Stat: Ending US global health research partnerships will cost America (perspective by Denis Nash)

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 (perspective by Hodan Omaar)

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