Inside (the Beltway) Scoop

By: Ellen Kuo
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Senate Appropriations Committee Finally Passes Bill to Fund NSF 
Speaker Mike Johnson called for a week-long recess after the House completed passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which canceled scheduled appropriations committee work for the week of July 7. Upon returning, the House appropriators began work on the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Related Agencies and Energy and Water bills. The mark for the National Science Foundation (NSF) was $7 billion, a 24 percent reduction or $2.06 billion less than fiscal year (FY) 2025 and cuts the STEM education section from the bill. The Department of Energy Office of Science received $8.40 billion —a 1.94 percent increase, or $160 million above FY 2025. However, the bill funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is not scheduled for committee consideration before the August recess. The 302 (b) allocation for the account that supports NIH was approved at full committee for $184.491 billion, which is $2 billion less than last year’s interim allocation, but the 12 subcommittee allocations will change as the spending bills move through the legislative process, as noted by House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole.

The Senate appropriators had tried to complete their corresponding bill funding NSF the previous week, with an unexpected outcome of Senators changing their votes to “No” on passage of the bill. This was after Senator Chris Van Hollen’s amendment was agreed to by a vote of 15-14 to prevent the use of appropriated funds to move the FBI headquarters from the previously designated site of Greenbelt, Maryland, to the Ronald Regan Building in Washington, D.C. CJS Subcommittee Chair Jerry Moran told the other Senators that he wanted to see a bipartisan bill go to the floor, which was not something the committee had yet achieved. When Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins saw that the bill would fail at committee level due to passage of this amendment, she conducted a vote at the end of the amendment process to withdraw approval of the CJS bill by moving to vitiate the passage of the bill so that it was not favorably reported. She then called a long recess. This bill would have funded NSF at $9 billion with a $60 million cut from FY 2025. During the amendment process, Senator Tammy Baldwin had an interesting amendment to the CJS bill, which failed (14-15) to restore 1,500 NSF grants except those grants cancelled due to mismanagement. Subcommittee Chair Jerry Moran opposed it, saying it was overly broad. Recognizing the legitimate issue with the amendment, Baldwin wanted to continue working on adding appropriate exceptions to find a way to advance her language when the CJS bill reaches the Senate floor. 

Upon resuming consideration of the Senate CJS bill on July 17, Moran offered an amendment striking Sen. Van Hollen’s bipartisan language regarding the headquarters for the FBI, which was adopted (15-14).  Sen. Tammy Baldwin also reintroduced her revised amendment regarding restoring NSF grants with a longer list of exceptions, which failed. However, Collins said she would work with her on broadening the scope of the language. Finally, this bill was favorably reported out of committee on a vote of 19-10.

The Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies bill was also favorably reported by full committee with $943 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research program (same as current funding).

Another Senate success was when the Appropriations Committee favorably reported the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies bill funding the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program at $445,200 million, which was flat funding according to the AFRI coalition. The subcommittee and full committee chairs and ranking members praised the bill, which fully funds the National Institute of Food and Agriculture is fully funded. According to the FY 26 Agriculture-FDA Senate report, the committee recognizes the importance of agriculture workforce training, education, research, and outreach activities, and noted the important role of junior or community colleges, which are eligible for AFRI awards, in developing the next generation of our agricultural workforce. The Secretary of Agriculture was encouraged to give strong consideration to applications from junior or community colleges, as well as applications that establish or expand career and technical opportunities in meat and poultry processing,  considering that specific gaps exist in this sector. AFRI priority areas include an emphasis on conventional (classical) plant and animal breeding, and the Committee wanted to see support providing farmers nationwide with greater access to cultivars that are locally and regionally adapted to their soils, climates, and farming systems. The Committee also directed the agency to make regionally adapted, publicly held cultivar development a distinct funding priority within AFRI for fiscal year 2026 and directs the agency to continue tracking public cultivar projects within AFRI and report its progress in meeting this goal. Per the report language accompanying the bill, AFRI is to prioritize funding for agroacoustics in its basic and applied research program, and prioritize applications that focus on advancing enteric fermentation solutions. The report also said that projects that focus on researching enhanced rock weathering and related monitoring, reporting, and verification efforts are eligible for AFRI awards. 

Chair Collins is actively making progress to move individual spending bills to the Senate floor for consideration, which has not happened in a very long time. She told her committee members of Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s commitment to have her bills considered on the Senate floor. Thune has said he would allow for amendments on the floor.