Science Policy This Week: March 2, 2026

What’s Ahead

One of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic bases. — One of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic bases, which are being upgraded through projects funded by the agency’s construction budget.

NSF

NSF reports delays for major research infrastructure projects

Several research infrastructure projects managed by NSF are experiencing construction delays, according to a GAO report published last week. NSF currently has seven major research infrastructure projects in various stages of development, and four of them have fallen several months behind schedule since July of last year. The agency said labor shortages and budgetary uncertainty are contributing to delays. The Regional Class Research Vessels program, which is building three new research ships, is facing the most significant delay among the agency’s major construction projects. The program is now scheduled to be completed in April 2029 – more than two years behind schedule. NSF said it is navigating multiple challenges with the project, including labor shortages, limited shipyard space for construction, and the overall complexity of the electrical power and control systems. All of NSF’s delayed projects are still within budget, but some have been reduced in scope.

GAO also published a similar report highlighting multi-year delays and multi-billion dollar cost overruns at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is currently overseeing 28 major construction projects.

Court decision clears way for Trump crackdown on government worker unions

A federal appeals court has vacated an injunction that briefly stopped the Trump administration from taking away the collective bargaining rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers. The court stayed a lower court’s injunction last summer, but fully overturned it last week, saying the administration’s move “has a legitimate grounding in national security concerns.” President Donald Trump issued two executive orders last year aiming to strip collective bargaining rights from workers at dozens of federal agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and most of the Department of Energy. Federal employee unions have fought back against these actions, but the most recent ruling means the administration is free, for now, to continue rescinding collective bargaining agreements. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a press release that the court’s recent ruling is “not a final decision” on Trump’s executive order, adding, “The court addressed only whether a preliminary injunction should remain in place while litigation continues. The case is not over.” A White House spokesperson described the court’s decision as a “great legal victory for President Trump and his ability to properly manage the federal government,” adding that President Trump’s executive orders “safeguard” American interests and “ensure that agencies vital to our national security can execute their missions without delay.” A bill that would nullify those orders passed the House with bipartisan support last fall and is now with the Senate.

DOE geothermal funds spark renewed scrutiny from Democratic appropriators

Democratic appropriators accused the Department of Energy last week of disregarding the law in its fiscal year 2025 spending by “shifting hundreds of millions of dollars provided for research and development of clean energy sources to President Trump’s favored industries.” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) sent a second letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting that GAO issue a legal decision on whether DOE’s allocation of funds violates funding laws. DOE issued a funding opportunity for $171.5 million in geothermal energy grants last week. This included $146.5 million of fiscal year 2025 funding, but Congress only provided $118 million in the funding law, Murray and Kaptur said, adding, “Secretary Wright is not above the law—he cannot provide more funding than Congress has provided so that he can help out handpicked industries.” GAO had not issued a decision following the appropriators’ first letter last July.

Senators reintroduce bipartisan Weather Act reauthorization

The Senate Commerce Committee will mark up its reauthorization of the Weather Act on Wednesday. The bill would reaffirm and update weather research and forecasting programs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and recommend between $167 million and $174 million each year through 2030 for NOAA’s research office to carry out specified weather research programs, similar to the House Science Committee’s recommendation last year, with a few million more dollars for weather labs and cooperative institutes. The recommendations are in line with NOAA’s fiscal year 2026 appropriation, passed in January. The bill specifies that the recommendation is for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, though the fiscal year 2026 funding law moves some of the specified programs, including the U.S. Weather Research Program and the joint technology transfer initiative, from OAR to the National Weather Service, as proposed in the presidential budget request.

Members of both the House and Senate have moved to reauthorize the Weather Act in recent years. The House Science Committee advanced its version of the bill last September. The bills are similar, but the Senate bill additionally recommends $311 million in fiscal year 2026 for NOAA and other federal science bodies, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research, to develop comprehensive weather forecasting training datasets for use in AI, and for NOAA to develop both global and local weather AI models that are available to the public at no cost. (The Trump administration announced its intent to “break up” NCAR in December.)

On Wednesday, the Senate committee will also mark up the NASA Transition Authorization Act, introduced in March of last year. The House Science Committee advanced its version of the NASA reauthorization last month.

Also on our radar

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced last week that the Pentagon will no longer send members of the military to graduate programs at “elite institutions” such as Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Brown, and Yale. A similar ban for Harvard was announced a few weeks prior.
OMB has been slow to authorize the release of funding to NIH, NSF, and NASA, resulting in restricted spending at these agencies and disruption to the research awards they disburse, according to reporting by Nature.
Research!America recently published a national survey showing that nearly 7 in 10 Americans want Congress to invest more in science and technology, and 92% support basic research. Of the respondents who were aware of cancelled grant programs and budget cuts impacting science, 83% said they were concerned about disruptions to research.
The leaders of the House Science Committee sent a letter last week to the FCC raising concerns that the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking on “Space Modernization for the 21st Century” exceeds the agency’s authority over communications policy by entering into space activity regulation.
The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday to consider the nominations of Arvind Raman to be NIST director and Matthew Anderson to be deputy administrator at NASA.
Leaders of the Senate Small Business Committee have reached a compromise on the SBIR program and plan to introduce legislation to reauthorize it for the next five years, according to Breaking Defense.
The Senate Commerce Committee reintroduced the bipartisan Future of AI Innovation Act last week. The bill would authorize NIST’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation to develop voluntary AI standards and create testbeds for AI research at national labs.

National Academy of Sciences: Distinctive voices: Climate change in the press
7:00 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, March 5

National Academies: Community townhall for ocean acoustics workshop (continues Friday)

NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards meeting (continues Friday)

CPSO: Forging a new paradigm for biosecurity governance
9:00 - 10:30 am

Senate: Nomination hearing for Matthew Anderson to be deputy administrator of NASA and Arvind Raman to be NIST director
10:00 am, Commerce Committee

Friday, March 6

NSF: Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee meeting
1:00 - 5:00 pm

Monday, March 9

National Academies: Policy issues for integrating AI in cancer research and care workshop (continues Tuesday)

Opportunities

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

Job Openings

NSCEB: Emerging biotechnology policy and operations intern (ongoing)
APLU: Senior vice president for academic affairs (ongoing)
APS: Chief marketing and communications officer (ongoing)
AIP: Director of science policy news (ongoing)
AIP: Senior editor, Physics Today (ongoing)
Economist: 2026 Richard Casement science and technology journalism internship (March 6)
◆Science: Communication and marketing intern (March 30)
◆Science: Kavli Science Journalism Awards intern (March 30)
ANS: Congressional science and engineering fellowship (June 6)

Solicitations

ITIF: Call for applicants to participate in the March 2026 tech policy educational seminar series for congressional and federal staff (ongoing)
DOE: RFI on mobilizing talent for the Genesis Mission and developing an American workforce to advance AI for science and engineering (March 4)
NIST: RFI on security considerations for AI agents (March 9)
OSTP: RFI for the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing (March 30)
NSF: RFI on the NSF Research Traineeship program monitoring system (March 31)
IEEE: Call for nominations and applications for IEEE leadership (multiple deadlines)
◆National Academies: Call for submissions for Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications (April 3)
NSF: RFC on NCSES data collection (April 7)

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

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