1 month ago
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Congress is moving forward with reversing many of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget cuts, particularly to science-related federal agencies and grant programs.
For example, the House and Senate have agreed not only to restore Trump’s reductions of nearly 40 percent to the National Institutes of Health budget, but added a slight increase. Spending for the National Science Foundation and NASA’s science research budget would remain essentially flat from the previous year, instead of planned cuts of 57 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
Funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, targeted for a 27 percent cut, was also restored and its satellite program that Trump wanted to eliminate also would be saved. The congressional funding boosts staffing at the National Weather Service, which also faced deep cuts.
Overall, spending on research and development that is not related to national defense is projected to decline by 3 percent to 7 percent, far less than the 33 percent cut sought by Trump, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Republicans and Democrats reached compromises on numerous bills that spare a sweeping array of federal programs from Trump’s deep cuts — from foreign aid to soc...
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