And they’re off: Budget season begins in Congress

With the release of the president’s budget request, the congressional appropriations process is officially off to the races, and ASBMB’s Public Affairs Advisory Committee is guiding the society’s strong advocacy response.

In early April, President Trump sent his budget request to Congress. The budget proposed significant cuts to federally funded science agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy Office of Science. You can view ASBMB’s statement on the budget here.

Now the real work starts. Let’s begin with a well-established rule of thumb in D.C. — historically, the president’s budget is considered dead-on-arrival in Congress. Even with a Republican-controlled House and Senate, the president’s budget cuts go deeper than Congress supports. That doesn’t mean that the product itself is useless. It typically reflects the administration’s priorities, and it allows Congress to note year-to-year comparisons. Additionally, the proposal recommends policy changes that the advocacy community and Congress need to be aware of. Policy issues that are of importance to the ASBMB community include a recommendation to cap NIH indirect costs at 15%, directing NIH to fund all grants in a forward-funded or multi-year funding grant mechanism and eliminating and merging key departments and institutes at NSF and NIH.

Now that Congress has the budget, lawmakers will move quickly from hearings to drafting and marking up funding bills, navigating competing priorities and tight timelines as they work toward funding the government for fiscal year 2027.

What happens now

Now the House and Senate will set their respective schedules to mark up their appropriations measures — a process by which congressional subcommittees and committees debate, amend and rewrite spending legislation before it advances to the House or Senate floor. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have 12 subcommittees that correspond to the 12 appropriations bills that must pass each year. ASBMB follows the Labor–Health and Human Services–Education, or Labor–HHS, a bill, which funds NIH; the Commerce–Justice–Science, or CJS, bill, which funds NSF; and the Energy and Water bill, which funds DOE Office of Science.

The House Appropriations Committee released its updated fiscal year '27 markup schedule. We know that the CJS bill will be debated on Thursday, April 30, the Labor–HHS bill will be debated on Friday, June 5, and the Energy and Water bill will be considered on Friday, May 15. The Senate has not yet released a formal markup schedule, but it is holding hearings with cabinet department secretaries on their budget requests.

Looking ahead

Most appropriations actions are expected between now and the end of July, leading up to the month-long August recess. After that, legislative activity will be limited given the upcoming November midterm elections. While appropriators aim to advance their bills as quickly as possible, the most likely outcome remains passage of a continuing resolution, which would freeze funding at current levels, in September, funding the government until after the November election, enabling lawmakers to complete appropriations work during the lame-duck session.

ASBMB action

The power of a scientific society is the ability to mobilize all of you — our members — as well as be your voice in Washington throughout the year.

ASBMB’s policy team continues to be your voice in D.C. and actively monitors and reports to the BMB community on the appropriations process. We will meet with congressional leaders to share concerns and express strong support at crucial legislative windows.

At the same time, members should anticipate and look out for critical moments when we will call for your engagement, with information about what is most crucial to convey and tools that make it easy to engage. Year-round, ASBMB has a letter ready for your use. You just need to enter your address, and it will be automatically emailed to your elected officials.

As a member, you power our collective ASBMB’s strong voice for basic science and the applications it enables. If you have any stories, thoughts or data you would like us to know, please send them to publicaffairs@asbmb.org.