Science policy this week: March 31, 2025

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

Trump zeroes out NSF construction budget for FY25

The National Science Foundation may not receive the $234 million appropriated by Congress for major construction projects in fiscal year 2025 after President Donald Trump decided last week to no longer designate the funding as “emergency” spending. Congress categorized the NSF construction account as emergency spending in the final budget deal for the previous fiscal year as a way of sidestepping tight caps on overall federal spending. The emergency designation applies to a total of 27 spending line items across agencies, but Trump has chosen to remove 11 from that list. His move has been challenged by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, who wrote to the Office of Management and Budget arguing that the action is illegal and that the final budget deal for fiscal year 2025 carried forward the emergency designations from the prior year. In addition to the NSF money, Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) highlighted how the decision jeopardizes $100 million in funding for procurement and construction projects at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Major facilities projects currently funded by the NSF construction account include infrastructure upgrades at research bases in Antarctica, a supercomputer at the University of Texas at Austin expected to begin operations next year, and various “mid-scale” infrastructure projects across the country. Many other planned facilities are also vying for NSF construction money, such as the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope. If Trump’s decision stands, it is unclear if NSF would be able to transfer money from other accounts to cover the construction funding shortfall. The $234 million hole in the agency’s budget represents a 2.6% cut to its fiscal year 2024 topline of $9 billion.

Grant and contract terminations proliferate

Cuts of active grants and contracts are starting to come to light across more science agencies. For instance, last week NASA terminated $420 million in unspecified contracts that “were determined to be redundant or misaligned with our core mission priorities,” NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said. The press have surfaced some examples of cut projects, such as a grant sponsoring the annual conference of the National Society of Black Physicists, according to Science. At the Department of Defense, Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the termination of $580 million in unspecified programs, contracts, and grants. The Department of Health and Human Services has posted a list of terminated grants, many of which were funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Nature has reported that NIH is cutting grants for COVID-19 research and projects related to transgender populations, gender identity, environmental justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the scientific workforce. The agency has also issued internal guidance saying it no longer supports research on COVID-19, DEI, “transgender issues,” vaccine hesitancy, or research in China, and it also directed staff to compile a list of grants related to fighting misinformation or disinformation. However, some long-COVID grants have since been restored. NIH staff have been told that new grants will now be reviewed by HHS and the Department of Government Efficiency to ensure the research aligns with the priorities of the Trump administration, according to Science.

More NIH layoffs planned as part of HHS downsizing

The Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping cuts last week including a pledge to lay off about 10,000 full-time employees and consolidate its 28 divisions into 15. Taken together with other layoffs, early retirements, and the Fork in the Road offers that have already taken place within the department, HHS estimated staff levels would drop from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees. An HHS fact sheet on the restructuring said the National Institutes of Health will decrease its workforce by approximately 1,200 employees “by centralizing procurement, human resources, and communications” across its 27 institutes and centers. “We’re keenly focused on paring away excess administrators while increasing the number of scientists and frontline health providers so that we can do a better job for the American people,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video announcing the restructuring. Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a statement that the proposed cut to the HHS workforce “defies common sense” in the midst of bird flu and measles outbreaks.

Trump asks OSTP director to revitalize US research

President Donald Trump wrote a letter to recently confirmed Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios last week, tasking him with revitalizing the American scientific enterprise. Evoking a letter that President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to his science and technology advisor Vannevar Bush during World War II, Trump outlined three challenges for Kratsios: 1) securing the U.S.’ position as the “unrivaled world leader in critical and emerging technologies,” 2) “redefining how America conducts the business of discovery” through innovative funding models and reduced administrative burden, and 3) ensuring that advances in science and technology “fuel economic growth that and better the lives of all Americans.”

“Today, rivals abroad seek to usurp America’s position as the world’s greatest maker of marvels and producer of knowledge,” Trump wrote. “We must recapture the urgency which propelled us so far in the last century.” President Joe Biden wrote a similar letter to his OSTP director at the beginning of his administration that also invoked Vannevar Bush and the successes of the post-WWII scientific enterprise.

Climate risks no longer included in annual intel assessment

References to climate change are absent from the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment released last week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report provides an unclassified overview of the entire intelligence community’s assessment of threats facing the U.S., and prior editions frequently identified climate change as a contributor to several worrying trends. For example, the 2024 report listed climate change as a major challenge for U.S. security, predicting that worsening droughts, flooding, and extreme storms would increase state instability and exacerbate economic problems that fuel terrorism and the illicit drug trade. The latest report also omits any reference to droughts, storms, water resources, or air quality, topics that past editions routinely flagged as concerns for U.S. security. For example, the 2018 report, delivered more than a year into President Donald Trump’s first term, assessed that “extreme weather events in a warmer world have the potential for greater impacts and can compound with other drivers to raise the risk of humanitarian disasters, conflict, water and food shortages, population migration, labor shortfalls, price shocks, and power outages.”

Asked by Sen. Angus King (I-ME) about the report’s lack of mention of climate change, ODNI Director Tulsi Gabbard said, “Obviously, we’re aware of occurrences within the environment and how they may impact operations, but we’re focused on the direct threats to Americans’ safety, well-being, and security.” The report places a new emphasis on countering drug trafficking and retains the focus from prior years on competition with China in science and technology, among other subjects.

Also on our radar

Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an order last week that delegates certain project management authorities to the national labs and reduces the number of project reviews required for major projects. The order also calls for a new approach to meeting workplace safety requirements and an assessment of the benefits and risks of removing certain construction labor agreement provisions from lab contracts. The order was first reported by Fox News.
The U.S. expanded export restrictions on dozens of foreign companies and research institutes last week. The restrictions are predominantly aimed at limiting China’s access to AI and quantum-related technologies with potential military applications.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Mike Lee (R-UT) is demanding information from three DOE national labs that reportedly funded research involving China-based supercomputers.

Deputy energy secretary nominee James Danly will appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday along with the nominee for deputy secretary of the interior.
Findings from a survey of scientists’ experiences applying for short-term U.S. visas will be presented by a National Academies board on Thursday.
The House passed a bundle of bipartisan bills last week focused on research security, interagency research collaboration, and remote sensing, among other topics. They now await action by the Senate.