Congress rejected the Trump administration’s proposed 55 percent cut to the National Science Foundation. Then it cut the agency by 20 percent instead.

On April 30, a House appropriations subcommittee voted 8-6 along party lines to advance a spending bill that shrinks federal science agencies while sparing them from the administration’s most dramatic proposals. The bill heads to the full committee on May 13.

NASA emerged nearly intact — its $24.4 billion budget stays flat, rejecting a White House plan to slash 23 percent. Republican lawmakers pointed to the recent Artemis II moon mission as evidence that human spaceflight deserves continued investment.

NASA’s science division was not so fortunate. Research and science mission funding falls from $7.2 billion to $6 billion, a 17 percent cut. The National Science Foundation drops from $8.8 billion to $7 billion. The administration had wanted $4 billion.

The pattern is straightforward. Programs with rockets, astronauts, and televised milestones have political constituencies. Basic research and science education do not.

The bill “right-sizes government while refocusing agencies on their core missions,” said Tom Cole, the Oklahoma Republican who chairs the full appropriations committee. The core missions worth protecting, apparently, are the ones with launch dates and photo opportunities.

“These cuts represent a failure, a failure to invest in the future to ensure that the next generation of world-class engineers, inventors, researchers and technicians are educated here in the United States,” said Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

The Senate has yet to draft its own version. Last year, the Senate proposed smaller cuts to science agencies and the final numbers tracked closer to its position. The same could happen again. But for now, the House has drawn a line — and most of the science that doesn’t fly is on the wrong side of it.

Sources