Science policy this week: 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.