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Category: Budget

More Details on Administration Budget Request

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We will continue to provide updates over the next several days and weeks but here are a few more details about the Administration budget request.

NIH

The $41 billion requested at the program level for the agency requests a $5 billion cut below the current year’s program level.  The budget summary argues that NIH “broke the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”  To partly address that, the Administration is seeking to eliminate three centers or institutes:

  • National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which, according to the budget documents, is “replete with DEI expenditures”; 
  • Fogarty International Center; and,
  • National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

ARPA-H

The agency would see its budget decrease from $1.5 billion to $945 million in FY2027.

ED

Additional programs would see lower funding levels or eliminated altogether under the budget proposal, including:

  • TRIO– $0 (currently at $1.19 billion)
  • GEAR-UP– $0 (currently at $388 million)
  • GAANN– $0 (currently at $19.5 million)
  • Federal Work Study– $123 million (currently at $1.24 billion)
  • Institute of Education Sciences (IES)– $261.3 million (currently at $790 million)

NSF

The budget request seeks to cut NSF by nearly 55%, reducing the current budget of $8.8 billion to $4 billion. Within this, there would be major cuts across the board, including: 

  • Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction: $173 million (currently $251 million), a 31% decrease 
  • NSF Total General Science and Basic Research: $3.3 billion (currently $7.1 billion) a 53% decrease
  • STEM education programs: $151 million (currently $1.1 billion), an 86% decrease
  • Within “Research and Related Activities,” funding for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate is eliminated 
  • The Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate is cut by $658 million, and the Technology, Innovations, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate is cut by $548 million
  • Consistent with a focus on “maritime dominance,” the request also includes $900.0 million in new mandatory authority to be used for construction of an Antarctic Icebreaking Vessel

Administration Releases FY2027 Budget Proposal

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As expected, the Trump Administration released its FY2027 budget request today.  The initial set of budget documents published this morning can be found here.

Our office will continue to provide further updates as we review the documents but some of the initial proposals are as follows:

Health and Human Services

  • $111.1 billion is proposed for the entire agency, which would represent a cut of $15.8 billion, or 12.5%, below the FY2026 level.
  • For NIH, the Administration is looking to cut the agency by $5 billion, to a total base funding level of approximately $41 billion.

Dept of Education

The Education Department would see a cut of $2.3 billion, or 2.9%, below the FY2026 level, for a total of $76.5 billion.

  • The maximum Pell grant would remain the same at $7395.  Additional funds are being proposed to fill a shortfall in the program
  • Once again, the SEOG program is targeted for elimination.
  • Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) programs would be cut by $354 million
  • Title VI International Education Program would be eliminated (currently funded at $81 million)

National Science Foundation

Like last year’s budget proposal, this year’s also seeks to drastically cut NSF.  Overall, the Administration would fund NSF at $4.0 billion, a cut of $4.8 billion, or nearly 55%.

Department of War

As expected, the Administration calls for a budget of $1.5 trillion for the agency, which would represent an increase of more than $440 billion, or 44%.

One of the priorities for the department is “maritime dominance.”

NASA

NASA would seen an overall decrease of $5.6 billion, or 23%, to $18.8 billion for FY2027.

Within NASA, the Science Mission Directorate would be cut by $3.4 billion, with 40 “low-priority” missions eliminated.

Space Tech would be cut by $297 million and the Office of STEM Engagement, where Space Grant is housed, would be cut by $143 million.

Department of Energy (DOE)

Dept of Energy would see a bump of $4.8 billion, or about 10%, to a total of $53.9 billion

The Office of Science and ARPA-E would both see cuts, with Science slated for a decrease of $1.1 billion and a $150- million cut targeted for ARPA-E.

NOAA

The Administration is once looking to cut NOAA, with the FY2027 budget calling for a $1.6-billion decrease and proposing to fund the agency at $4.0 billion.

Dept of Interior

Interior is being targeted for a cut of $2.3 billion, or nearly 13%, and would receive a total of $15.9 billion in FY2027 under this budget.

Please check back here for additional updates.

Halfway through the fiscal year, NIH lags on grantmaking schedule

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As the halfway point of the federal fiscal year passes, the NIH has only obligated around 15 percent of the estimated $38 billion it has to distribute in grants and contracts, according to analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The 43-day-long government shutdown in October and November is partially responsible for these delays, as well as layoffs and departures of thousands of NIH staff members since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. Despite Congress providing $47.2 billion in total funding to the NIH in FY26, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had reportedly placed a hold on releasing funds, raising concerns that the agency was not authorizing the appropriated dollars. At a March 17 House oversight hearing on the NIH, Director Jay Bhattacharya assured the subcommittee that the agency will spend every dollar it has received from Congress.

The first half of FY25 also saw a slow start to NIH awards going out the door. This trend quickly sped up by the summer, but in an effort to spend its full budget, the NIH made the unusual shift to fund more large lump-sum payments for many years of research rather than paying for research one year at a time, resulting in fewer grantees.

Federal Government Shuts Down

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Efforts by both parties to pass competing versions of a spending bill collapsed Tuesday night in the Senate, triggering the first federal government shutdown since President Trump’s first term. After months of partisan stalemate, last-ditch negotiations failed, leaving federal agencies officially without funding.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown will cost agencies $400 million per day, with roughly 750,000 federal employees furloughed. While these workers won’t be paid during the shutdown, a 2019 law guarantees back pay once it ends for those who are retained.

Under guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, thousands of furloughed employees may receive layoff notices. Federal unions filed suit Tuesday to block the move, while the White House budget office urged agencies to consider terminating programs that lose funding. President Trump and his OMB Director Russ Vought have long sought to permanently reshape the government and appear poised to do so under the shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he will continue pushing votes on the House-passed budget bill, betting that prolonged pressure will prompt more Democrats to cross the aisle. So far, Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Angus King (ME), and John Fetterman (PA) have broken ranks to support the GOP measure. Cortez Masto and King, who is an independent that caucuses with Democrats, cited concerns that a shutdown would only grant the Trump Administration more power to dismantle the government as the rationale for their votes. Despite these defections, Republicans still need at least five more Democratic votes to reopen the government.

White House Tells Agencies to Prepare for Mass Firings

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The White House budget office is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force (RIF) plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, specifically targeting employees who work for programs that are not legally required to continue.

In a recently released memo, the Office of Management and Budget told agencies to consider RIF notices for all “employees in programs, projects, or activities (PPAs) that satisfy all three of the following conditions: (1) discretionary funding lapses on October 1, 2025; (2) another source of funding, such as H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21) is not currently available; and (3) the PPA is not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

These RIF notices will be in addition to any furlough notices sent out as a result of a potential shutdown. Furthermore, the memo stipulates that once FY26 appropriations are enacted, agencies should “revise their RIFs as needed to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions.”

During previous shutdowns, the government has issued temporary furloughs to most federal employees, bringing them back once Congress voted to reopen the government. This time, however, the Trump Administration is using the threat of permanent job cuts as leverage, seeking to make a potential shutdown as painful as possible for congressional Democrats. Agencies have been instructed to submit their proposed RIF plans to OMB and to issue notices to employees whose jobs may be cut.

According to Politico, a number of programs will continue regardless of a shutdown, including “Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations, law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and air traffic control.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who voted with Republicans in March to keep the government funded, is holding firm in his opposition to the Republican funding plan. Schumer faced considerable criticism from the party base after his decision in March, which he claimed was aimed at preventing the very dismantling of federal agencies proposed by this memo. This time around, however, Schumer says he has revised that view, arguing that the administration’s attacks on federal agencies “will get worse with or without [a shutdown], because Trump is lawless.”

The memo states that RIF plans submitted to OMB will not be implemented if the government receives funding by September 30. That outcome, however, appears increasingly unlikely.