Despite President Trump’s efforts to deeply cut science funding from the federal budget in 2026, Congress quietly restored much of the funding to previous levels in recent weeks.
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With most of the government now funded, we’re getting a better sense of where our tax money will likely go in the rest of the 2026 fiscal year. One of those places is science. Despite a request from the president to cut the spending for many agencies, Congress quietly restored billions of dollars. NPR’s Katia Riddle reports.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: A year ago, around this time, Sudip Parikh was fearful for the future of science in this country. That’s when the Trump administration started what are now known as the DOGE cuts, slashing or pushing out staff from federal agencies. Parikh is CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He describes these cuts as taking a chainsaw to the enterprise of science.
SUDIP PARIKH: By February and March, you really saw real damage, and that was the low point.
RIDDLE: But since then, Parikh has watched Congress repeatedly reject new budget cuts that the president proposed and finalize spending that protects science at or near prior funding levels. NASA’s overall budget, for example, came in at $24 billion, nearly 6 billion more than what the administration requested. It’s democracy at work, says Parikh, and it happened almost on the sly.
PARIKH: You know, appropriations is one of the last bastions of bipartisanship in the Congress.
RIDDLE: Quick civics lesson – each fiscal year, the president issues his own draft of how he thinks money should be spent. It’s up to Congress to honor the administration’s wishes or not and pass separate bills that spell out exactly how much each agency gets. That’s called appropriations. The process isn’t glamorous, but that, says Parikh, is where the real work happens.
PARIKH: You know, you can make every speech you want about being the greatest nation on Earth. You can make every speech you want about exceptionalism. And if you don’t put money behind it, that doesn’t mean anything. Money is policy.
RIDDLE: Another person who was watching this process closely, Casey Dreyer. He works for The Planetary Society. That’s a nonprofit that does advocacy for space science and NASA.
CASEY DREYER: We had huge public response for an issue like space science, right?
RIDDLE: Dreyer helped to organize a grassroots effort to support NASA.
DREYER: We led the largest in-person advocacy day for space science likely in history. We had, with our partners, over 100,000 messages sent to Congress about space science issues.
RIDDLE: Congress listened and acted, says Dreyer. Both Democrats and some Republicans pushed back on the president’s proposed cuts to NASA.
DREYER: Scientific activities by NASA tend to be what the – generally is, like, the absolute top things that the public expects NASA to do.
RIDDLE: Even with restored funding, inside agencies like NASA, things are not necessarily back to business as usual. Casey McGrath is an astrophysicist at NASA. He spoke in his personal capacity.
CASEY MCGRATH: So I’ve had to deal with, like, a full year of, like, not 100% knowing whether or not I would be out of a job or not to all of a sudden being in a spot where it’s like, OK, well, I guess our whole mission is funded now.
RIDDLE: McGrath says he’s feeling whiplash. He worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Independent of NASA funding, people on the campus there are in turmoil over ongoing efforts to dismantle buildings, including a beloved library. Many of his colleagues are gone now after taking the deferred resignation. McGrath says it all adds up to an ongoing sense of chaos under this administration.
MCGRATH: Some office spaces or desks are empty, but now we’ve got brand new people moving in some places. So it’s very confusing.
RIDDLE: There are other obstacles for scientists. The funding does not mean that programs that were cut will necessarily be restored or that the U.S. will engage in the same kind of scientific inquiry as in the past. Some also fear the White House’s Office of Management and Budget will delay the money further. Again, Sudip Parikh from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
PARIKH: The OMB loves to find ways to circumvent appropriations language.
RIDDLE: In fact, in recent days, officials at the OMB directed NASA to pause funding, even though it’s already been approved, for a number of science missions. It’s unclear how long this delay will last. OMB did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Parikh says he’s fearful the administration will find other ways to withhold funding or threaten science.
PARIKH: All those things are possible, and the Congress will have to stand up to it.
RIDDLE: Parikh says he’s still optimistic that Congress’ long-standing measured legislative process will win out over the dramatic warfare the administration is waging. He says some of the most significant accomplishments in science are due to the gears of government turning quietly. He recalls one time meeting a woman with cystic fibrosis who lived much longer thanks to medical advances from U.S. investments.
PARIKH: I can draw a direct line from funding to scientific discovery to the fact that I met a woman who is a grandmother who has cystic fibrosis, and that’s a miracle. That’s a freaking miracle.
RIDDLE: A miracle that started, says Parikh, with a mundane appropriations bill. Katia Riddle, NPR News.
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