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Category: Defense

More Information on the Administration Budget Request

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Pentagon  RDT&E Budget Request

Total Basic Research (6.1):  $2.144 billion (-$207 million compared to FY2026)

Total Applied Research (6.2):  $6.087 billion (-$1.072 billion compared to FY2026)

 Army

  • 6.1 research: $396.1 million (-$129 million)
  • 6.2 research: $914 million (-$608.9 million)

 

Navy

  • 6.1 research: $525.4 million (-$71.1 million)
  • 6.2 research: $935.3 million ($400)

 

Air Force 

  • 6.1 research: $387.1 million (-$20 million)
  • 6.2 research: $1.258 billion (-$338 million)

 

Defense-wide

  • 6.1 research: $800.1 million (+$13.7 million)
  • 6.2 research: $2.746 billion (-$319 million)

 

National Science Foundation (NSF) Budget Request

 Total discretionary funding request:   $3.963 billion (-$4.787 billion compared to FY2026)

Total funding request (including mandatory funds):  $5.103 billion (-$3.887 billion)

  • The total request includes, among other items, $900 million for a new Antarctic Research Vessel from mandatory funds.

 

  • Research and Related Activities (R&RA): $3.409 billion (-$4.706 billion)
  • Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC): $173 million (-$78 million)

 

Within the R&RA account, every directorate would see a decrease, with the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences slated for elimination.

Please continue to check back on the blog for updates.

Agency-Specific Budget Request Documents Becoming Available

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A number of agencies are making available their specific budget request documents.

  • The NSF budget document is available here. 
  • The budget documents from the Department of Education are posted here. 
  • The initial requests from the Pentagon for its research budget are available here. 
  • The USGS budget document is available here. 
  • The Administration proposes to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in its proposed budget.
  • NASA budget documents can be found here. 
  • Department of Energy budget documents are available here. 

Senate fails to advance DHS funding

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A failed Senate vote Thursday has set the stage for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security beginning at midnight tonight. Republicans tried to advance the same bill that the House approved last month, which would fund DHS through September. As expected, the proposal, which did not add any new curbs on immigration enforcement that Democrats have been pushing for, failed to draw the 60 votes necessary. The vote was 52 to 47, with Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) as the only Democratic senator to vote in favor.

The vote comes after a week of intense hearings, including a Thursday oversight hearing by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, where Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) asked three top DHS officials to watch a frame-by-frame video of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The three witnesses—ICE acting Director Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and director of USCIS Joseph Edlow—also testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. The Senate committee also grilled a panel of Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, Rep. Tom Emmer, state Rep. Harry Niska and Paul Schnell, the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Corrections.

Republicans had hoped that Democrats would be swayed by Thursday’s announcement by Tom Homan, border czar, that the Trump administration would pull immigration agents out of Minnesota. But Senate Democrats have remained firm that they will not support even a temporary funding measure without new guardrails. The House and Senate are both headed into a weeklong recess, meaning a funding lapse for DHS will begin Saturday morning, the third time in five months that parts of the government have been shut down. The shutdown will affect FEMA, CISA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and TSA. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiations would continue and that members of Congress should be prepared to quickly return.

Congress Home for the Holidays

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After a busy week, Senators huddled on the floor Thursday night as they made an eleventh-hour attempt to find a path forward on bringing up a bundle of five bills or minibus for consideration before the end of 2025. No agreement to move forward was reached after Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both of Colorado, announced they would hold up the package after White House OMB director Russ Vought’s decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is based in Colorado.

 

The package under consideration in the Senate would fund the Departments of Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce (including NOAA), Health and Human Services (including NIH), Transportation, Labor and Interior, along with the EPA and NSF.

A few Republican Senators have held the bill from moving forward but released a hold after Senate leadership agreed to an amendment vote on stripping earmarks in the legislation. The Colorado hold is new to the OMB decision.

The Senate will resume consideration and negotiations in January.

 

 

FY26 NDAA Conference Bill is Released

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Conferees released the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was released this week.

H.R. 3838, the Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 is the final version before final House and Senate passage and the measure goes to the President to become law. The plan would authorize $900.6 billion in national security spending which is $8 billion more than what was in the president’s budget request. In comparison, the FY25 NDAA was $924.7 billion.

The measure contained a provision which would prohibit the Department from modifying indirect cost rates to higher education or nonprofit organizations without prior consultation by those groups and with establishing an implementation plan adequate transition time to change budgeting and accounting processes.

It includes language to repeal the 2002 Iraq War and 1991 Gulf War Authorizations of Military Force.

Also included were limits on reducing troops in Europe and South Korea and $400M for Ukraine security assistance.

The measure did not contain the SAFE Research Act, which was included in the House-version of the NDAA. The SAFE Research Act would have prohibited all federal research agencies from supporting researchers who collaborate with “foreign adversaries,” such as graduate students who were from certain countries of interest or association with certain institutions. The measure used a 5-year lookback with retroactive penalties to researchers. Included in “collaboration” would have included research agreements, study abroad programs, conference participation, university facilities abroad, etc.

Also out are the proposed IVF expansion and controversial base renaming provisions.

Conference Resources:

FY26 NDAA Conference Text Legislative Summary

FY26 NDAA Conferenced Bill Full Text

FY26 NDAA One Pager

The House is expected to pass the measure this week, and the Senate is expected to pass the same measure by the end of the year. When passed, this will the the 65th year the annual authorization bill has passed.