Science policy this week: September 2, 2025

What’s Ahead

The facade of Building One at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD. — Building One at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD.

Lydia Polimeni / NIH

House Appropriations Committee proposes level funding for NIH

The House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee published its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal yesterday. A fact sheet released by the committee says the proposal includes $48 billion for the National Institutes of Health — roughly level with the agency’s current $48.3 billion budget and far from the nearly $19.4 billion cut proposed in the Trump administration’s budget request. The subcommittee plans to hold a markup of its appropriations bill at 5:00 pm ET today.

The proposal also includes:

$945 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Health (ARPA-H), a decrease of $555 million.
$352 million for NIH buildings and facilities, an increase of $2 million.
Nearly $7.3 billion for the National Cancer Institute, an increase of $48 million.

In an online statement, Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley welcomed the committee’s “decision to reject the deep cut to the NIH” proposed by the White House, but raised concerns about proposed cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and ARPA-H.

Earlier this year, Senate appropriators proposed a $48.7 billion budget for NIH and moved to stop the Trump administration from making changes to how overhead costs are calculated in NIH grants or restructuring NIH’s 27 institutes and centers without input from the committee.

Commerce Department claws back National Semiconductor Technology Center funding

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will take control of the National Semiconductor Technology Center, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced last week. In his post on X announcing the decision, Lutnick accused Natcast, the nonprofit created to oversee the NSTC, of being an “illegal, unaccountable, left-wing created fake department.” The move essentially claws back more than $7 billion in semiconductor research grants.

The NSTC was created during the Biden administration as a public-private partnership to administer CHIPS and Science Act funds. Natcast has not commented on Lutnick’s announcement directly, but did say on Thursday that it was cancelling its annual symposium “due to the recent news from the Department of Commerce.” On Aug. 19, Natcast released a policy memo emphasizing the nonprofit’s “close alignment” with the Trump administration’s priorities, including the policies detailed in Trump’s Restoring Gold Standard Science executive order. House Science Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) called the move “legally dubious” and said it will “delay the implementation of the CHIPS Act, postpone vital R&D to keep America competitive with China, and undercut years of planning in the private sector and academia.”

NSF continues to improperly place rotators in supervisory positions

The National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General concluded last week that temporary staff are still performing “prohibited supervisory functions” at NSF, despite previous audits flagging this issue. According to the report, NSF instructed “rotators” employed through the Visiting Scientist, Engineer, and Educator Program to perform management tasks that should not be conducted by temporary staff, per Office of Personnel Management rules. Prohibited tasks include: conducting annual performance reviews, engaging in performance-based or adverse action procedures, and rewarding employees. The report also found that NSF continued to advertise temporary positions with supervisory responsibilities until it suspended all hiring in response to the White House’s federal hiring freeze earlier this year. In a written response to the report, NSF agreed with the findings and said it would develop a corrective action plan.

Also on our radar

NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will reportedly spend 14% less than its enacted budget for fiscal year 2025. The agency is also planning cuts to its next-gen geostationary weather satellites program.
President Trump issued an executive order cancelling collective bargaining agreements with federal unions at NASA, NESDIS, and the NWS, along with several other agencies, on the grounds that the agreements compromise the agencies’ “national security missions.”
The House CCP Committee is recommending that the Commerce Department limit sales of American-made AI chips to Chinese companies based on a “rolling technical threshold.” By allowing Chinese companies to buy U.S. chips that are only marginally better than what China can produce domestically, the committee argues the U.S. can “extend Chinese dependence on the U.S. hardware stack while also substantially limiting China’s frontier AI development.”
The Science and Freedom Alliance, an NIH science advocacy group, is urging NIH employees to refuse to terminate research grants that were previously reinstated on the grounds that terminating the grants again would likely be illegal.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued new research security guidance for colleges and universities in coordination with multiple federal research agencies last week. Foreign adversaries are “increasingly exploiting the open and collaborative nature of U.S. academic institutions for their own gain,” and institutions must take steps to protect their research, staff, and students, said acting NCSC Director James Cangialosi in a statement.