Following last week’s budget deal that all but guarantees huge government spending increases over the next two years, the Trump administration made last-minute changes to its budget request for fiscal year 2019 that spare the Department of Energy Office of Science, National Science Foundation, and National Institutes of Health from proposed cuts. But other science agencies and programs are again slated for double-digit cuts or elimination.

Congress concluded its 2017 session with a week of productive legislating that included final passage of the Republican tax reform bill and an extension of federal spending through Jan. 19. The House also passed three bipartisan STEM education bills and a disaster relief spending package that, if enacted, would provide a one-time funding boost to several science agencies.

Science agencies have stable funding as they begin fiscal year 2018 under a continuing resolution. However, their long-term outlook is less clear, as they wait for annual appropriations to be finalized and prepare for the fiscal year 2019 budget request. The deadline has just passed for them to submit “agency reform plans” detailing workforce and program cuts to be implemented over the next several years.

To date, President Trump has retained the directors of the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, but has not appointed a science advisor or nominated heads for most of the federal science agencies. This pace puts him behind his predecessors, who had completed most of these appointments by the summers of their first years in office.