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In May, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)\u00a0proposed cutting NASA\u2019s overall budget to $18.809 billion and NASA\u2019s science budget to $3.908 billion, 24% and 47% below current levels and the\u00a0lowest inflation-adjusted budget since FY 1961. To meet those limits, NASA\u00a0identified over 40 major projects, including 23 active missions, for\u00a0permanent shutdown, risking more than $12 billion in taxpayers\u2019 investments.<\/p>\n
Congress ultimately sets agency funding through the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Bill, one of 12 different appropriations bills. Over the summer, the\u00a0House and\u00a0Senate Appropriations Committees (HAC & SAC) separately passed CJS funding bills that rejected OMB\u2019s drastic cuts to NASA. The Senate set NASA at $25.0 billion with $7.3 billion for science; the House matched the top line but set science at $6.0 billion (an 18% cut).\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASA operated in FY 2025 at the same non-inflating FY 2024 levels since a full-year\u00a0continuing resolution (CR) was passed in March 2025. Those funds expired on Oct. 1, at which point, lacking another short-term CR, the federal government shut down, placing NASA employees on furlough and pausing many NASA-hosted projects. On Nov. 12, the House and Senate together\u00a0passed another short-term CR that reopened the government until Jan. 31, 2026, along with\u00a0full-year funding for three of the 12 appropriations bills, none covering NASA. To prevent another shutdown, Congress must pass a full-year appropriations bill or another CR by that deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Policy uncertainty has had real consequences. Over the summer, OMB\u00a0instructed agencies to prepare for major cuts without congressional approval, which\u00a0raised the specter of mission shutoffs, with\u00a0delayed NASA grant solicitations and\u00a0fewer awards (an 80% cut) offered this year compared with prior years. A\u00a0dispute over OMB\u2019s authority to steer agency planning without\u00a0final appropriations spurred a\u00a0bipartisan proposal from the Planetary Science Caucus to bar irreversible terminations during a CR by including specific “anomaly” language. Although this anomalous language was not adopted in the CR passed on Nov. 12, the message was clearly sent to OMB.<\/p>\n
The worst of the feared mission terminations were avoided when Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy\u00a0directed the agency to plan for the House-defined funding levels rather than the president\u2019s budget request. And during the shutdown,\u00a0NASA notably directed employees to maintain baseline mission operations. Nonetheless, some level of reorganization and reductions in force have\u00a0been occurring at NASA centers,\u00a0including during the shutdown, with potentially damaging effects to science missions. Passing full-year appropriations is necessary to guide NASA and avoid harmful, potentially irreversible terminations.<\/p>\n
Beyond the $1.3 billion discrepancy in NASA science funding, the core differences between the House and Senate bills come down to how explicitly they shield missions and research from cuts. The Senate rejects all mission and program terminations that would result from the PBR and uses directive language to make congressional intent unambiguous. The House rejects most terminations and sets useful funding minimums, but at generally a lower funding level that is most pronounced in Earth Science and Heliophysics.<\/p>\n
Missions protected in the Senate bill, but not the House\u2019s, include vital Earth observing satellites, three highly anticipated missions to Venus, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and ongoing missions studying Mars, the outer planets, and the Sun. The House bill funds the ambitious Mars Sample Return project, while the Senate\u2019s does not, and offers somewhat more funding for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The Senate offers greater support for research programs in astrophysics, heliophysics, and planetary defense, among others. The House gives more emphasis to space weather monitoring and disaster-responsive Earth science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n