President's budget request includes cuts to science
President Donald Trump today released his administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2021. In it, he proposes cutting domestic nondefense spending, including investments in the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, in favor of increasing federal defense spending.
More on Trump's spending priorities
- Read the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s official response to President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2021.
- In his State of the Union address, the president misrepresented his administration’s support for medical research. In fact, he has repeatedly sought to reduce funding.
Trump’s budget would reduce nondefense discretionary spending by $40 billion and increase defense spending by $2 billion. This comes despite a bipartisan agreement made in Congress last year to lock in spending levels for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, which Trump signed into law.
Among the cuts the president’s budget proposes are:
- a 7% cut to the National Science Foundation budget,
- a 5% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget, and
- an 8% cut to the Department of Education budget.
While these proposed cuts, and the priorities they reflect, are disheartening, the president’s budget is only a request. Congress ultimately makes spending decisions, and it has consistently balked at the president’s attempts to reduce funding for science.
Join the ASBMB Today mailing list
Sign up to get updates on articles, interviews and events.
Latest in Policy
Policy highlights or most popular articles
Still unclear why university expelled 15 Chinese researchers
The University of North Texas has said only that the decision followed briefings by federal and local law enforcement.
ASBMB joins amicus brief
Society and other nonprofits raise concerns about racial profiling by federal investigators and prosecutors’ attempts to criminalize administrative errors.
Science-related legislation to watch
One bill would provide $26 billion in emergency funding for agencies that support research; another would protect against foreign influence in research.
We are here because we choose to be
Five months into a pandemic with arguably the world’s worst response, the United States can no longer take the easy way out and blame only politics for our downfall. We’re to blame, too.
NSF foreign influence probes net nearly two dozen
Meanwhile, feds charge Ohio State researcher with fraud and drop theft charges against Emory professor.
U.S. seeks to kick out and ban foreign students
Harvard and MIT sue government to stop rule change targeting F-1 and M-1 visa holders at or heading to institutions offering only online courses this fall because of COVID-19.