R&D, Science, and Technology

Sun, Aug 2, 2026:

• Senate Republicans join in rebuking White House over science funding

  GOP leaders are supporting a spending bill that would prevent the White House from asserting greater control over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants. - WP

Tues, June 9, 2026:

• Trump’s Assault on Scientific Research Just Got Worse. - NYT
  A new kind of institutional vandalism appeared last month in the form of a 412-page Trump administration regulatory proposal… If the proposal passes, it will damage one of the most rigorous, productive and valuable scientific enterprises in the world. The Office of Management and Budget has called for a rule change that would impose restrictions on the kinds of research that can be funded and give political appointees the final authority to deny federal funding for research deemed inconsistent with presidential priorities.

Fri, May 29, 2026:

• Trump’s administration on Friday moved to give political appointees more power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies, a move scientists say puts critical research funding into the hands of partisans without relevant expertise. - AP

Mon, April 27, 2026:

• The Trump administration has fired members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation. - AP

Sat, April 4, 2026:

• Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain. The White House’s attacks on academia and budget cuts for research have provided an opening for other countries to poach leading scientists. - NYT

Mon, March 16, 2026:

• Why the research money isn’t flowing from NSF and NIH
  Most scientists assumed grant money would start to flow soon after federal research agencies received their annual appropriation from Congress in late January. But in fact, under President Donald Trump, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is using what has historically been a routine process for releasing funds (apportionment) to slow things down. That has prompted fears that key research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) might end up spending much less this year than the amount they received from Congress. - Science

Wed, March 4, 2026:

• Nearly 95k science employees left government as Trump downsized agency workforces. The Trump administration also has cut spending on science contracts and grants. GovExec

Fri, Feb 20, 2026:

• Nobel chemistry laureate Frances Arnold: ‘Whole swaths of science are just going to die on the vine’. The Caltech professor on using AI to harness the power of enzymes — and what US funding cuts could mean for research. - FT

Thurs, Jan 15, 2026:

• Pro-science Republicans are fending off cuts to funding. This year’s budget will probably restore much of what the White House sought to eliminate. - Economist

Sat, Jan 10, 2026:

• Congress Is Reversing Trump’s Steep Budget Cuts to Science. After the White House called for billions of dollars in funding reductions, senators and representatives are rescinding the proposed cuts and even boosting funds for basic research.

  • Caveat from TrillionsWeekly: One can no longer assume that because money has been appropriated by Congress, it will be made available. This White House has explicitly embraced presidential impoundment authority. Until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, funding levels will be highly uncertain.

Tues, Dec 2, 2025:

• The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine. A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science. - NYT

Mon, Oct 20, 2025:

• White House Is Cutting Rare-Earth Research at the Wrong Time - Bloomberg

Sun, Aug 7, 2025:

• We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself - NYT

Fri, Aug 8, 2025:

• Trump executive order gives politicians control over all federal grants, alarming researchers - AP

  • The order requires all federal agencies, including FEMA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, to appoint officials responsible for reviewing federal funding opportunities and grants, so that they “are consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”

  • It also requires agencies to make it so that current and future federal grants can be terminated at any time — including during the grant period itself.

  • Agencies cannot announce new funding opportunities until the new protocols are in place, according to the order.

  • The Trump administration said these changes are part of an effort to “strengthen oversight” and “streamline agency grantmaking.” Scientists say the order will cripple America’s scientific engine by placing control over federal research funds in the hands of people who are influenced by politics and lack relevant expertise.

Thurs, May 29, 2025:

• If America Doesn’t Want Harvard, Somebody Else Will. Defunding academic research is a spectacular act of self-harm. If the US persists, other countries are right to step in. - Bloomberg

Wed, April 16, 2025:

• Why colleges like Harvard can’t easily use endowments to replace federal funding; Endowments aren’t a simple replacement for government funding because of restrictions related to donor earmarking, legality and research priorities, experts say. - NBC

Fri, March 28, 2025:

• Trump restricts federal research funding, a lifeblood for colleges - AP