By Kritika Agarwal
On Thursday, January 15, the Senate voted 82-15 to send legislation rejecting the president’s deep proposed cuts to science to his desk for a signature.
Senators passed a package of three appropriations measures – the FY26 Energy-Water, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Interior-Environment bills – following bipartisan negotiations. The House had passed the package in a 397-28 vote the previous week.
The bills provide:
- $8.75 billion for the National Science Foundation (a 3% cut from FY25).
- $7.25 billion for NASA Science (a reduction of 1% from FY25).
- $8.4 billion for the Department of Energy Office of Science (a 2% increase).
- $350 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (a cut of 24%).
- $207 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts (the same level of funding as provided in FY25).
The bills also include provisions preventing the Department of Commerce, DOE, NASA, and NSF from using the appropriated FY26 funds “to develop, modify, or implement changes” to the FY24 indirect cost negotiated rates. (Indirect costs, also known as facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, are real costs universities incur while conducting research on behalf of the American people. They typically include infrastructure and operating expenses.)
On Wednesday, January 14, the House also passed the FY26 Financial Services-General Government and National Security-State bills.
The joint explanatory statement accompanying the FSGG bill directs the White House Office of Management and Budget to not make any changes to “the manner in which negotiated indirect cost rates have been implemented and applied under the Uniform Grant Guidance, as that guidance was in effect during fiscal year 2024.” (Joint explanatory statements are formal statements that clarify congressional intent regarding how federal agencies should implement specific provisions contained in a bill.)
The statement also directed OMB to look into proposals like the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model that seek to achieve improvements in indirect cost recovery.
Appropriators are expected to release another package – perhaps as early as Sunday night – consisting of the FY26 Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Transportation-HUD bills. Once released, these bills will clarify FY26 funding for the Education Department as well as the National Institutes of Health.
One contentious issue that senators are dealing with regarding the Labor-HHS-Education bill is the Trump administration’s switch to a forward-funding mechanism for National Institutes of Health grants.
As AAMC explains, forward funding “describes a mechanism through which the NIH makes available to grantees the entire budget for a grant upon the initial award, as opposed to an annual basis.” Use of this mechanism in FY25 allowed the agency to make larger grants, albeit to an overall smaller number of grantees. Some Democratic senators have argued for the inclusion of a policy rider in the Labor-HHS-Education bill that would oppose NIH forward-funding; the White House has reportedly pushed back.
Congress must pass all remaining appropriations bills by January 30 in order to avoid a second government shutdown.
Kritika Agarwal is assistant vice president for communications at AAU.