Science Policy This Week: April 13, 2026

Science groups push back against proposed budget cuts

Science advocacy groups are urging Congress to reject President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to research funding in fiscal year 2027.

The Association of American Universities condemned the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and research offices at the Department of Energy in a press release,
highlighting reports that China’s investments in scientific research and development “are now outpacing our own.”

The Trump administration’s proposal to cut NSF’s budget by 54% and eliminate
the agency’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate has drawn criticism from groups such as the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

The administration’s proposal to cut NASA Science by nearly 50% has also raised alarm, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), the co-chairs of the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus, releasing a joint statement
that such cuts would “create enormous chaos and uncertainty for critical missions, the scientific workforce, and long-term research planning.” Last month, Chu and Bacon co-authored a letter,
signed by more than 100 House Representatives, requesting $9 billion for NASA Science in the upcoming budget. A similar letter,
led by the American Astronomical Society and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), is circulating among senators. The request seeks $3.9 billion for NASA Science. (AAS is an AIP Member Society.)

While some university groups, such as the American Council on Education
and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities,
applauded the Trump administration’s proposal to increase funding for the Pell Grant program, which helps undergraduate students from low-income families pay for their education, they expressed alarm over wider cuts to student aid, institutional support, and research funding. The American Physical Society, alongside other scientific organizations, has launched a campaign
urging people to write to their representatives in support of increased science funding. The Planetary Society has also launched a letter-writing campaign and is planning a day of action
on April 20. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

Congress to hold budget hearings

Congressional committees will hold multiple budget-related hearings this week. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will appear before the House Budget Committee
on Wednesday and the Senate Budget Committee
on Thursday to discuss President Donald Trump’s budget request
for fiscal year 2027. The House Appropriations Committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the Department of Energy’s budget proposal
with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and on Thursday to discuss the Department of Health and Human Services’ budget proposal
with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS will be a focus of several other committees this week: RFK is slated to appear
before the House Ways and Means Committee the morning before his budget hearing, and the House Education and Workforce Committee
will meet on Friday to discuss policies and priorities at HHS.

Also this week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a rescheduled markup
of the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act, and the House Science Committee will discuss the state of scientific publishing.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing
for Preston Wells Griffith, a former DOE official
who is now Trump’s pick to represent the U.S. at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The House Committee on the CCP will hold a hearing
on “China’s Campaign to Steal America’s AI Edge.”

Trump administration skips deadline to appeal NIH indirect cost ruling

The deadline for the Trump administration to appeal a court decision on indirect costs at the National Institutes of Health passed
last week, leaving in place a ruling blocking the 15% cap on such costs that the White House sought to implement last year for university grantees of several agencies. NIH’s budget request
for fiscal year 2027 says that the agency “will continue the policy to cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent.” FYI has reached out to NIH for comment on whether that statement is still accurate.

Indirect costs are the portion of a grant that covers expenses such as equipment and facilities maintenance, IT services, and administrative support, often expressed as a percentage of direct research costs. The administration attempted to instate 15% caps at NIH, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, which were each blocked in court. Typical cost reimbursements are between 30% and 70%.
DOE, NSF, and DOD withdrew their own cap policies following the litigation, and appropriations laws blocked
changes to the current indirect costs system in fiscal year 2026.

A group of higher education associations proposed the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model
last year as an alternative indirect costs model, and a spokesperson said the group will work with Congress to implement the model as part of the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process.

NSF to study compensation for early-career researchers

The National Science Foundation agreed to establish a timeline for a study on the effectiveness of current funding mechanisms for federally funded graduate researchers and postdoctoral scholars, as recommended
by the Government Accountability Office. The study, which Congress directed NSF to complete by August 2023, would also recommend the appropriate balance between fellowships, traineeships, and other funding models. NSF also agreed to analyze gaps in the data needed to “fully assess” the adequacy of compensation for these researchers. Centralized data on graduate researcher compensation currently does not exist, the GAO report found. The report also analyzed compensation, cost of living, funding stability, and other factors that influence these researchers’ decisions to pursue and remain in federally funded research programs. It noted that some agency efforts to assess barriers to recruitment and retention related to organizational climate were ended in 2025 because they did not align with executive branch priorities.

Also on our radar

• NSF announced
  2,500 GRFP awards today, higher than the average of around 2,000 awards each year since 2010. Last year saw a sharp drop in awards to about 1,500.
• Most NOAA grants are currently frozen as OMB withholds funding, according to a report
  from Boulder Reporting Lab last week.
• ARPA–E announced
  $135 million in funding for fusion energy technologies. The agency’s total budget is $350 million for fiscal year 2026, and the White House has proposed
  cutting it by 43% in fiscal year 2027 to eliminate funding for “technologies favored by the globalist climate agenda.”
• Astronauts on the Artemis II mission returned
  safely last Friday after traveling a record distance from Earth to view the far side of the Moon.
• House CCP Committee Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) expressed support
  for DOD’s research security policy, updated
  last month, which prohibits collaboration on fundamental research with entities on an expanded set of prohibited entity lists.
• Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna (CA) and Grace Meng (NY) expressed their support for NSF’s SECURE program for research security in a letter
  in early April.
• DOE awarded
  around $50 million for ten university-led projects on nuclear safety training and education.
• A bill
  to reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs will become law this week unless vetoed by the president.