Budget

Foundation for U.S. Breakthroughs Feels Shakier to Researchers
With each dollar of its grants, the National Institutes of Health —the world’s largest funder of biomedical research —generates, on average, $2.56 worth of economic activity across all 50 states. NIH grants also support more than 400,000 U.S. jobs, and have been a central force in establishing the country’s dominance in medical research. Waves of funding cuts and grant terminations under the second Trump administration are a threat to the U.S. status as driver of scientific progress, and to the nation’s economy.
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Trump’s Bid to Support Coal Could Cost Ratepayers Billions: Report
The market has spoken: Across the country, coal plants have phased out as they’ve been unable to compete with cheaper renewables and natural gas. A recent report found that 99% of existing U.S. coal plants “are more expensive to run than replacement by local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.” Mandates from the Trump administration to subsidize aging, uncompetitive coal plants would cause taxpayers billions and lead to a massive spike in energy costs.
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Europe Is Significantly Boosting Its Defense Spending. Can the Continent Become a Military Superpower?
Military spending across the European Union is ramping up in what observers have noted is a significant and “extraordinary” pivot from the comparatively placid postwar decades. Mai’a Cross thinks Europe’s shift toward an “era of rearmament” will be in its long-term interest.
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Attacks on the U.S. Innovation Ecosystem Are an Attack on a Wellspring of American Prosperity
The Trump administration’s attacks on the country’s science and innovation ecosystem — its cuts to federally funded R&D; its war on higher education; and its aggression toward immigrants, including skilled immigrants — are dismantling America’s science and technology advantage—putting the country’s future prosperity at risk. This frontal assault on the key source of U.S. industry’s competitive advantage is not a recipe for American greatness; it is a recipe for long-term decline.
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Why the U.S. Is Letting China Win on Energy Innovation
The frontiers of global technology have pivoted to AI and next generation energy. In AI, the U.S. has far outpaced any other nation, but in energy, the U.S. has just tied its shoelaces together. The reason isn’t technology, economics or, despite the administration’s misleading official line, even national security. Rather, it is politics. The fact is, the U.S. does not have an energy security problem. It does, however, have an energy cost problem combined with a growing climate change crisis. These issues will only be made worse by Trump’s enthusiasm for fossil fuels.
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Feds Move to Eliminate Petrochemical Watchdog, Putting Texans and Others at Risk
Amid increasingly intense weather, the Chemical Safety Board is the lone independent agency watching over the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical corridor.
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Will New Interior Department Rules Shackle Wind and Solar? Insiders Are Divided.
Some Republicans felt that the massive budget bill that President Trump signed into law earlier this month did not go far enough in discouraging the growth of wind and solar power. So we know new Interior Department rules will slow wind and solar development — but we don’t yet know how much.
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Trump Is Fast-Tracking New Coal Mines — Even When They Don’t Make Economic Sense
In Appalachian Tennessee, mines shut down and couldn’t pay their debts. Now a new one is opening under the guise of an “energy emergency.”
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Cuts to Early Warning Systems Are Leaving the U.S. Unprepared for Summer Floods
The extreme costs and death toll of recent floodings across Texas, New Mexico, and the Northeast have put into question the future of the United States’ emergency preparedness amid major budget and staffing cuts to critical risk-reduction agencies and programs.
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Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts
Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”
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Forensic Crime Labs Are Buckling as New Technology Increases Demand
Across the country, state and local crime labs are drowning in evidence. From rape kits to drug samples to vials of blood, delays in forensic testing are stalling prosecutions, stretching court calendars. A major federal funding cut could make labs’ struggles worse.
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Will Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Defense Spending Last?
Trump’s signature legislation will push defense spending past $1 trillion, with new funding for innovation and other capabilities. But those investments are at risk of becoming one-off acquisitions without sustained follow-on funding.
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FDA Layoffs Could Compromise Safety of Medications Made at Foreign Factories, Inspectors Say
Beyond staff cuts, the departures of some longtime investigators in recent months have left less experienced people tasked with rooting out dangerous manufacturing practices.
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Actions from Federal Government Needed to Alleviate Air Traffic Controller Staffing Shortages at Many Facilities: Report
The current shortage of staff at air traffic control facilities is attributable to past hiring constraints and a misallocated workforce, the effects of which may be exacerbated by current inefficiencies in shift scheduling, says a new report.
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ACIP Draft Agenda Revives Anti-Vaccine Boilerplate Topics
RFK Jr. replaced scientists on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with anti-vaxx activists. On Wednesday, true to form, the new ACIP members issued a draft meeting agenda which contains topics which have become common talking points of vaccine-efficacy deniers.
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