President Trump Budget plan for 2026 fiscal yearPublished on May 2, threatens to devastate budgets of the main research agencies in the United States, contributing to an increasing alarm between university research groups and defense of the country. These groups, including the American Chemical Society (ACS), call on the congress to intervene, but the situation seems dark.
The so-called “lean budget” would reduce the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which supports fundamental research and education in the non-medical fields of science and engineering such as chemistry, about 55%. The NSF distributes about $ 9 billion (6.8 billion pounds sterling) to fundamental science each year. The president’s proposal would also reduce the funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – the largest biomedical funder in the world – by around 40%, between 48.5 billion at around 27 billion dollars.
NASA would receive a drop of 24%, including a reduction of 47% of its scientific budget, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology – a small agency that advances science, standards and technology – would see its funding falling by falling by About $ 325 million, for an overall drop of around 25%. The Office of Sciences of the Ministry of Energy (DOE), which is the largest federal sponsor of fundamental research in the United States in physical sciences and a major research support in fields such as science of materials and chemistry, is also in red, but would be better – lose $ 1.1 billion compared to its budget of $ 8.8 billion.
Meanwhile, the financing of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would decrease 54% overall, or $ 5 billion, and the agency’s research and development office seems to face, although the agency plans to move certain scientists who work there towards other divisions such as the office of chemical security and pollution prevention. This office should win “more than 130 experts in scientific, bioinformatics, technical and information technology”, EPA has announced.
These figures were not well received in the research community. ACS is extremely concerned about the proposed discounts, saying that the scale cuts proposed to the NSF and NIH, for example, could have very negative effects on American research, derail innovation and threaten the pipeline of future scientists ”. The organization plans to continue to plead at the congress for solid and supported investments in science.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is also worried. “Make no mistake, if the congress promulgates the president’s lean budget, the consequences for the future of our nation would be catastrophic” Information Sudip ParikhThe Director General of AAAS. “The United States will no longer be in the world race for the leadership of R&D – we will have lost it.”
The United States is at the crossroads and “It is up to our federal legislators to reaffirm their bipartisan support for a long time for science and technology investments by rejecting this budget,” concluded Parikh, who was a scientific advisor to the republican management of the senator scientific committee from 2001 to 2009.
Mark Becker, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, also agrees. “Congress leadership is necessary to reject the erroneous cuts for higher education and research, which are main engines of American productivity, job creation and innovation and rather redouble in largely recognized sources of world economic leadership” “” He said.
Other organizations, including The Association of American Universities And The American Physical Society (APS), expressed similar feelings and urged the congress to reject the cuts proposed by Trump to science and to prioritize robust and lasting funding for federal scientific agencies.
‘China already celebrates the headache in chemistry and other physical sciences, at least by certain measures, ‘ Neal LaneA physicist who was scientific advisor to former president Bill Clinton and previously director of the NSF, says World of chemistry. “With this budget, the administration seems to send a message that America really does not care as much about science.”
The president’s full budget request for the year 2026, which begins on October 1 and should be published shortly, will include additional details. This document will then go to the two chambers of the congress for the deliberation and the decisions concerning the levels of final financing.
During the first Trump administration, The Congress has repeatedly prevented significant discounts with the main research agenciesbut Experts said that such an intervention by Capitol Hill seems much less likely This time. Indeed