Science Policy This Week: January 12, 2026

What’s Ahead

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael tour the courtyard at the Pentagon. — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael at the Pentagon.

DOD / Alexander Kubitza

DOD increases restrictions on fundamental research with foreign entities

The Department of Defense announced last week that it will tighten restrictions on its fundamental research work with certain foreign entities and increase annual security reviews. The Jan. 8 memo from Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael blocks DOD from providing funds to entities that appear on the agency’s list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S. and entities with “a documented history of patent or intellectual property theft.” The new policy requires DOD to carry out annual “spot checks” of all fundamental research awards that have security mitigation measures and at least 25% of other fundamental research awards. The memo also instructs DOD’s Science and Technology Protection Program Office to create a department-wide repository of fundamental research risk reviews and calls for the development of automated vetting systems for grantees. Versions of these policies were recommended by the House CCP Committee in a report published last September. That report found a “troubling” number of DOD research grants involved “entities directly tied to China’s defense research and industrial base.” A proposed bill derived from the report’s findings, called the SAFE Research Act, was opposed by higher education associations late last year and excluded from the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 that passed last month.

US to withdraw from key UN climate efforts

President Donald Trump announced his intent to pull the U.S. out of more than 60 international cooperation agreements and organizations last week, including the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is seen as a global authority on climate science, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which provides a foundation for global climate cooperation and is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement. The list also includes the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine, as well as several renewable energy and biodiversity efforts.

In a presidential memorandum published on Jan. 7, Trump said he had directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the international intergovernmental organizations to which the U.S. is a party and flag any that are “contrary to the interests of the United States.” Based on that review, Trump selected 66 organizations and agreements that the U.S. is now taking immediate steps to withdraw from, more than 30 of which are run by the UN. In an online statement, Rubio said these institutions were “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.” Trump’s memo noted that for the UN entities, withdrawal means “ceasing participation in or funding to” to the “extent permitted by law.” As no other country has attempted to exit agreements such as the UNFCCC, it is unclear whether the U.S. can legally withdraw unilaterally, according to reporting by The Guardian and other outlets. The American Geophysical Union, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and several climate-focused organizations said the withdrawals would set back global climate cooperation and harm U.S. scientific credibility.

House committees to host hearings on weather satellites, innovation, and AI

Several science and technology-focused hearings will take place in the House this week. The Science Committee will hold a hearing on how weather satellites support national security on Tuesday, with representatives from the Air Force, the Navy, and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Also on Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee will discuss the role of trade policy in maintaining U.S. innovation and technology leadership. On Wednesday, the Science Committee will discuss advancing America’s AI Action Plan with White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, the Education and Workforce Committee will hold a hearing on making the U.S. “AI-ready,” and the Foreign Affairs Committee will discuss the “AI arms race” between the U.S. and China.

Senate committee looks to reauthorize quantum initiative

A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act last week to extend the National Quantum Initiative to 2034. The original NQI, established in 2018, directed the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institute of Standards and Technology to support quantum information science research, student training, and standards development. The NQI itself currently runs until 2029, but authorization for certain programs expired in 2023. The Senate bill would add several quantum centers at NIST and NSF and authorize quantum R&D at NASA, including quantum satellite communications and quantum sensing research. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced NQI reauthorization legislation in the previous Congress, but it did not reach a vote in the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The House Science Committee advanced its version of the legislation in 2023, but it did not reach a vote in the full House. That bill has not been reintroduced in the current Congress.

Also on our radar

Congressional appropriators released two more compromise funding bills on Sunday. The package includes a provision that would block OMB from making changes to indirect cost rates and policies.
The University of Kentucky is reviewing its memberships and partnerships with external organizations, including many scientific societies, to identify if they restrict participation based on race, gender, or other characteristics. A December report from the university indicates that hundreds of organizations have been reviewed and cleared, while over a thousand others have been flagged for deeper review and possible cancellation.
The National Academies issued a report on DOD’s SBIR and STTR programs recommending that the programs be extended permanently, that Congress not mandate strict benchmarks restricting awards based on previous funding, and that SBA revise its policy blocking certain applicants that do not meet commercialization or transition benchmarks.
DOE announced $2.7 billion in funding last week for LEU and HALEU uranium enrichment projects that aim to transition the U.S. away from foreign sources of uranium and diversify the domestic fuel supply.