In my previous note I tried to layout the importance of basic research as a fuel for commercial companies and their development of new products. Although the ROI on basic research and discovery is huge, it is unpredictable specifically because discoveries are unpredictable. Basic research is the single greatest driver of economic growth and will NEVER be funded by private companies.
Here, I want to talk about what is happening today in our country to the institutions that produce that basic research.
Intuitively I understood that the BBB Act was attacking science in this country; however, I was just not aware of the scale or the range of this assault. Rather than attempting to find the cuts myself, I found this compendium authored by the AAAS. I have distilled it here.
As you read through these cuts or listen to the current administration’s spokespeople, notice that not only is basic research cut, but the BBB Act also attempts to direct research to an agenda, a faulty approach that mistakes discovery and exploration for invention.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest scientific society, and it is the premier organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation for the benefit of all people. It also publishes the single most respected scientific journal in the USA and the world, “Science”.
This is a shortened version of their analysis of the BBB Act budget cuts to science research.
NIH
(The premier health and life sciences research center in the entire world; it has its own laboratories and funds research in peer-ranked and competitively awarded laboratories across the country)
A 37% budget cut.
The White House rationale: The NIH “has grown too big and unfocused” and “has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”
The NIH would be refocused on RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, which emphasizes chronic diseases, and be aligned with Trump’s executive orders barring funding for research linked to “radical gender ideology” and “divisive racialism.”
The budget also eliminates NIH’s complementary medicine center, nursing institute, Fogarty International Center (focusing on global health issues), as well as the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, “which is replete with DEI expenditures.”
NSF
(The agency that supports and funds basic research in all fields of science except for the medical sciences)
A 55% budget cut.
Funding would be cut sharply for “climate; clean energy; woke social, behavioral, and economic sciences; and programs in low priority areas of science.”
A budget cut of 85% for activities “broadening participation” in science and engineering.
The only disciplines spared the budget ax are artificial intelligence and quantum information sciences research; their current budgets would be held level.
Elimination of funds to upgrade and build new large scientific facilities including the entire $234 million NSF was given by Congress this year for infrastructure projects such as a new supercomputer at the University of Texas and upgrading its largest Antarctic research station.
Department of Energy (DOE)
(which, among other things, manages the entire nuclear arsenal and nuclear power plants along with research to increase energy usage efficiency, renewables and is the largest funder of physical science and engineering research)
A 14% budget cut.
A 57% cut for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) which is the agency tasked with translating the most promising discoveries from basic research into budding technologies that industry can develop further.
A 74% cut to applied research in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The White House says the budget will help “achieve American energy dominance” by targeting DOE funding toward research “that could produce an abundance of domestic fossil energy and critical mineral [and] innovative concepts for nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuels.”
Nevertheless, the budget cuts spending on the Fossil Energy and Carbon Management program by 31% and on Nuclear Energy by 24%.
NASA
A budget cut of 53% for research
This includes its earth science program, including “funding for low-priority climate monitoring satellites.” It would cut $2.27 billion from “space science” including the termination of the “unaffordable” Mars Sample Return mission, which seeks to bring rock and soil samples from that planet back to Earth.
This will force the agency to not only curtail missions in development, but also prematurely end otherwise healthy missions that are still returning data.
Drastically revamp NASA’s approach to human spaceflight, killing the “grossly expensive” Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft after their first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, and ending the Gateway space station—which is nearing completion—that’s planned to orbit the Moon.
Cut the agency’s technological research in half and slash funding for the International Space Station by $508 million, reducing its crew size and onboard research. The administration also seeks to fully eliminate the agency’s office of education, arguing that “NASA will inspire the next generation of explorers through exciting, ambitious space missions, not through subsidizing woke STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] programming.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
A 24% budget cut.
The bulk of that reduction will come from “climate-dominated research, data, and grant programs.” These cuts would include wiping out the agency’s research offices and centers all around the country. Researchers say that would cripple U.S. research into earth system science and end its standing as a world leader in climate change research.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
A 33% budget cut.
The elimination of the Ecosystem Mission Area which hosts the agency’s biological and ecological research, relevant to efforts such as monitoring water quality, protecting endangered species, and predicting landscape impacts from climate change.
The administration request says USGS should “focus on achieving dominance in energy and critical minerals.”
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
An 18% budget cut.
Extramural funding, distributed by the department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), would drop by one-third.
NIFA programs on climate change and renewable energy would be axed, and unrestricted grants to universities, often spent on agricultural experiment stations, would be trimmed sharply.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
A 46% budget cut
This includes cuts to the Office of Research and Development (ORD), breaking it up and sending some of its research staff to other program offices.
The request says the administration’s budget “puts an end to unrestrained research grants … and skewed, overly precautionary modeling that influences regulations.”
The request zeros out the $100 million Atmospheric Protection Program, which requires thousands of companies to report greenhouse gas emissions data.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
A 39% budget cut.
It would eliminate several noninfectious disease initiatives within the agency, including the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which in 2024 awarded most of its $1.4 billion budget to state, local, tribal, and nonprofit efforts including tobacco cessation, nutrition, and obesity prevention programs. Also on the chopping block is CDC’s Global Health Center, which leads efforts to fight HIV and tuberculosis, conduct disease surveillance, and run vaccination campaigns worldwide. All three were among the programs the budget characterizes as “duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary.”
U.S. Forest Service
A budget cut of 62%
Cuts from the Forest and Rangeland Research program.
“The President has pledged to manage national forests for their intended purpose of producing timber,” adding that the forest research program “is out of step with the practical needs of forest management for timber production.”
Climate projects
Cuts target a wide range of projects aimed at adapting to climate change or reducing planet-warming emissions.
At the DOE it calls for slashing $15.2 billion provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the production of electric vehicles and batteries and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
At NASA, it would eliminate the Aeronautics program to eliminate funding for “green aviation” programs.
Smaller funding agencies
The request also calls for eliminating many smaller agencies—including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services—that provide modest but significant sources of funding for some fields, such as archaeology and anthropology. (The administration has already gutted those two agencies by terminating existing grants and firing staff, although those moves have been challenged in court.) It also calls for eliminating the Marine Mammal Commission, a specialized agency that provides science advice on protecting whales and other marine mammals.