• Federal Shutdown Deals Blow to Already Hobbled Cybersecurity Agency

    Unfortunately, adversaries do not reduce their attacks against the U.S. based on available federal cyber defense funding or the status of cybersecurity laws. In fact, malicious hackers often strike when their target’s guard is down.

  • Funding Cuts, Policy Shifts, and the Erosion of U.S. Scientific and Public Health Capacity

    The U.S. continues to face mounting threats to its health, scientific enterprise, and national security. A recent report warns that proposed FY 2026 budget cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) could reduce its funding by more than half – from $9 billion in FY 2025 to under $4 billion. If passed by Congress, these cuts would result in an estimated ~$11 billion in economic losses.

  • How Federal Research Support Has Helped Create Life-Changing Medicines

    The Trump administration is proposing a nearly 40 percent budget reduction to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which sponsors a significant portion of biomedical research. A new study finds that over 50 percent of small-molecule drug patents this century cite at least one piece of NIH-backed research which would likely be vulnerable to that potential level of funding change.

  • States Fast-Track Wind, Solar Permits and Contracts to Beat Trump’s Deadline

    Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued a number of policies aimed at dismantling support for renewable energy, particularly targeting wind and solar power, which President Trump described as a “scam.” Federal tax credits have brought project costs down 30-50%, advocates say.

  • The True Cost of Abandoning Science

    “We now face a choice: to remain at the vanguard of scientific inquiry through sound investment, or to cede our leadership and watch others answer the big questions that have confounded humanity for millennia —and reap the rewards.”

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.”

  • 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.

  • 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.”