Science policy this week: October 6, 2025

What’s Ahead

Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director, speaks alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), from left, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), and Vice President JD Vance as they address members of the media outside the White House. — Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, speaks alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), from left, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), and Vice President JD Vance as they address members of the media outside the White House.

AP Photo / Evan Vucci

Trump threatens further agency cuts as shutdown continues

The government shutdown continues this week, with Republicans and Democrats still at an impasse over healthcare spending. The Senate is expected to vote again at 5:30 pm today on the continuing resolution agreement that the House passed in September. Senate Republicans need 60 votes to pass the CR and will need the support of at least eight Democrats or independents, but only a few have indicated a willingness to support the CR in prior votes. The Senate will continue to meet this week, but the House is not scheduled to resume meetings until after Columbus Day.

The Trump administration has warned it may use the shutdown to make cuts to federal agencies and implement widespread federal layoffs. President Donald Trump met with White House Budget Director Russell Vought last week to “determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a potential SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last Thursday. That same day, the Department of Energy announced the termination of more than 300 grants totaling more than $7 billion. Many of the projects focused on clean and renewable energy, with cancellations impacting two major hydrogen hub projects, per reporting by E&E News.

Vought tweeted a list of states – all of which voted Democratic in the last presidential election – where projects have been cancelled. Democratic leaders have described the cuts as illegal and politically motivated. “This administration has had plans in the works for months to cancel critical energy projects, and now, they are illegally taking action to kill jobs and raise people’s energy bills,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement. (This May, Energy Secretary Chris Wright began a large-scale review of DOE-funded projects to identify candidates for cancellation.)

Just prior to the shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to consider reductions in force, in addition to standard furloughs, as part of their shutdown plans. Intramural research at science agencies has been largely paused, but whether the shutdown has triggered new staff RIFs remains unclear.

Trump offers funding advantage deal to small group of universities

The Trump administration sent a proposal to nine universities last week asking them to adopt certain conservative priorities in exchange for priority access to federal grants, looser restraints on overhead costs, invitations to White House events, and conversations with administration officials.

Signatories to the 10-page “compact” would commit to maintaining “institutional neutrality” at all levels, ensuring university employees abstain from political speech, and recognizing that “academic freedom is not absolute.” The compact also requires signatories to conduct surveys of “viewpoints among faculty, students, and staff at all levels” and publicly publish the results.

Signatories would be required to cap international enrollment at 15% for undergraduates, with no more than 5% from a single country. They would also freeze tuition for five years, with free tuition awarded to students in “hard science” programs at institutions with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate student. The compact prohibits signatories from considering gender, race, or political ideology in admissions. It also requires institutions to provide single-sex spaces for women and strictly define sex and gender according to “reproductive function and biological processes.”

The compact has drawn criticism from Democrats, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening to pull state funding from any California institution that signs the agreement. In a statement, Newsom said that California will not “BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.”

Most of the universities that received the proposal have not publicly shared a response, but Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, reportedly said he was honored the system’s flagship school was selected for potential funding advantages.

Small business R&D programs expire

Authorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) lapsed last week after a last-minute attempt to extend the programs failed. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a one-year extension bill on the Senate floor on Sept. 30, asking for it to be passed by unanimous consent. The House approved the extension earlier in September. The lapse means that neither program will be able to issue new awards.

The one-year extension bill failed when Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) objected to it and offered an alternative. Ernst’s plan would have extended the program for one month, but included several changes that Markey has previously opposed, including the introduction of a $75 million lifetime cap on SBIR awards for companies. “I have been crystal clear that I cannot support a one-year clean extension of the SBIR-STTR programs unless meaningful reforms are included to ensure every dollar serves America’s investments,” Ernst said in her remarks on the Senate floor.

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Science and Small Business Committees issued a joint statement on Sept. 30 expressing disappointment at the Senate’s failure to extend the program. “For more than forty years, these initiatives have kept small businesses at the forefront of innovation, strengthened our national defense, and delivered immense returns for taxpayers. A lapse creates uncertainty for innovators and risks slowing progress at a time when global competition is intensifying,” they wrote.

Also on our radar

China’s new “K visa” for skilled workers went into effect last week, drawing speculation about its plans to allow foreigners to work in the country at a time when the U.S. is moving to make its H-1B visa program more restrictive.
The American Association of University Professors joined a coalition of organizations suing the Trump administration over its introduction of a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.
The Department of Energy has replaced six discipline-specific advisory committees advising the Office of Science with a single panel called the Office of Science Advisory Committee.
NIH last week rescinded some research security policies it announced earlier in September as part of efforts to “harmonize with other federal agencies.”
MIT will support the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile thanks to a donor gift, the university announced last week. MIT declined to share the size of the gift.