Trump proposes new US science budget cuts as NIH overhead cap fight ends
Trump proposed significant cuts to major US science agencies for 2027, including a 13% reduction for the NIH and a nearly 55% cut for the NSF. The administration also let lapse its Supreme Court deadline in a separate fight to cap NIH research overhead payments at 15%.
For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump has proposed significant cuts to the budgets of major US science agencies. The White House’s plan for federal spending next year also includes a ban on using federal funds for subscriptions and publishing fees for some academic journals, while the administration will not be asking the Supreme Court to take up its fight to slash federal support for research overhead costs.
The plan proposes cuts to federal agencies that fund or conduct research on health, space and the environment. Some of the steepest cuts would be made to the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency: the budgets of both would fall more than 50% in 2027 compared to their current levels. The budget for the National Institutes of Health would drop 13%.
The White House seeks to slash the NSF budget by nearly 55%, to $4 billion. NASA faces a 23% cut to its total budget and a 47% drop in funding for its science division. More than 40 projects would be terminated.
Budget figures in the proposal were listed as:
- NASA: $24.4 billion in 2026 and $18.8 billion proposed for 2027
- National Institutes of Health: $47.2 billion in 2026 and $41.3 billion proposed for 2027
- National Science Foundation: $8.8 billion in 2026 and $4 billion proposed for 2027
- Department of Energy Office of Science: $8.4 billion in 2026 and $7.1 billion proposed for 2027
- National Institute of Standards and Technology: $1.8 billion in 2026 and $900 million proposed for 2027
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $6.2 billion in 2026 and $4.5 billion proposed for 2027
- Environmental Protection Agency: $8.8 billion in 2026 and $4.2 billion proposed for 2027
A budget document says that the proposal would maintain funding for research on quantum information and artificial intelligence “to ensure the United States remains on the cutting edge” in those arenas. But basic quantum and AI research funding at NSF would be cut by 37% and 32%, respectively.
The proposal would also prohibit the spending of federal funds for expensive subscriptions to academic journals and prohibitively high publishing costs unless required by federal statute or approved in advance by a federal agency. The proposal says many journals charge the government to both publish and to access the same research study.
Ultimately, it is the US Congress that decides how the federal budget will be spent — not the president. Congress rejected the administration’s requests for huge cuts in 2026, restoring funding for many of the programmes the White House sought to eliminate. The proposal is a starting point for congressional negotiations, which could last until the start of the 2027 fiscal year on 1 October, or even beyond it because of congressional elections on 3 November.
In a separate dispute over NIH grant funding, the Trump administration will not be asking the Supreme Court to take up its fight to cap payments for research overhead at 15%. The deadline to do so came and went without a petition from the Department of Justice, effectively ending the 14-month standoff over a policy to drastically reduce the rate of reimbursement for indirect costs on federal grants.
The legal battle started last February, when the NIH abruptly announced it would cap payments for research overhead at 15%. Under the previous policy, institutions would negotiate with the NIH for individual rates to cover expenses not directly linked to the goals of a particular project, like facility upkeep and salaries for grant management staff. Many research institutions typically receive 50% or more of their direct research expenses to cover indirect costs.