The US Congress plans to significantly cut budgets this year for key federal research agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ), compared to last year. Experts stressed that it will be difficult for the US scientific community to continue existing research programs or launch new ones. / Associated Press
This year’s budgets for major U.S. federal research agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have been significantly reduced compared to last year. Experts point out that it will be difficult for the US scientific community to continue existing research programs or start new ones.
The international academic journal Science reported on the 4th (local time) that the US Congress is expected to pass a bill on the 8th of this month to keep most scientific research budgets unchanged or reduce from last year.
The largest decline occurred at NSF. It was set at $9.06 billion, a decline of about 8.3% from 2023. The cost is nearly $2.3 billion less than the $11.3 billion requested by the White House. Last year, Congress increased the NSF budget for new technologies and innovation. However, due to financial difficulties, the budget has been significantly reduced and this department has to compete with other departments for expenses this year.
The EPA was set at $9.2 billion, a decrease of about 10% ($1 billion). This is $100 million less than what the White House requested. The US Geological Survey (USGS) fell 2.8% ($42 million) from last year, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) fell about 10% ($167 million) . The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) research budget remained the same as last year.
In some places the budget has increased slightly. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) budget was set at $8.24 billion, an increase of 1.7% ($140 million) over last year. The basic energy sciences program was set at $2.62 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent ($92 million), and the nuclear fusion and high-energy physics programs were also increased by approximately 3%, to $790 million and $1.2 billion respectively. On the other hand, computer science programs such as biology, environmental studies, and nuclear physics programs were cut by 4.9%.
Experts pointed out that although the overall DOE budget has increased thanks to science, DOE spending this year has not been able to keep up with inflation, so it is not a large budget at all.
◇ NASA’s “planetary research” alone is down 15%… “Mars sample return” will likely be difficult
NASA’s Perseverance mission to Mars. NASA
NASA’s budget was set at $24.9 billion, a 2.8% increase from last year. Earth science, astrophysics, heliophysics (solar geophysics), and life science programs remained the same or increased slightly. A budget has been allocated to be used until the retirement of the Terra, Aqua and Aura satellites, which have been operational for 20 years.
Meanwhile, the planetary science program had a budget of $2.7 billion, down 15%. Science had predicted that major NASA missions, especially the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, would be difficult to achieve adequately. Under existing plans, sending rock samples collected by the Mars Exploration Rover Perseverance to Earth for analysis would cost up to $11 billion.
The U.S. Senate had previously said it would repeal the MSR in the previous budget draft. There was no mention of the MSR in the final bill. However, Science feared that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, responsible for the MSR, might reduce its workforce in anticipation of budget cuts, and that there was a risk of high-quality personnel being lost to NASA. NASA is reviewing how to complete the MSR mission and expects to finalize its plans this month.
Furthermore, there is a risk of disruption to other missions. Pressure was also placed on two missions: NASA’s Venus exploration program, Veritas, and the Space Dynamics Satellite (GDC). These missions have already been delayed by NASA due to cost overruns. Furthermore, the “Dragonfly Rotocopter” mission, which will fly to Saturn’s moon Titan, and the “NEO Surveyor” space telescope mission, which will search for Earth-threatening asteroids, are expected to cost at least $360 million and at least $210 million . see respectively.
Matt Hourihan, a science policy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, told Science: “We expected it would be difficult to increase science research budgets given the spending caps (agreed to by President Joe Biden and Congress), but we are still disappointed.” He criticized: “In an era when we must strengthen support for American scientists and engineers, it is frankly absurd to cut the budget for organizations like NSF and NIST.”
Science also highlighted that scientific institutions’ research budgets have been frozen and cut since last year, making it impossible to launch new research programmes, and warned scientists to “prepare to tighten their belts”. This year’s scientific research budget is about $460 billion, which is equivalent to a quarter of this year’s U.S. military budget. The US Congress is currently setting budgets for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense.
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