Issue 05 (March 10)

It’s your last chance to register for COSSA’s annual Social Science Advocacy Day taking place March 23-24, 2026 in Washington, DC! This annual event brings together social and behavioral science researchers, faculty, students, association professionals, and other advocates from across the country. Together, we’ll meet with elected officials in Congress to discuss the value of our sciences and the importance of federal funding.

Join the 80+ advocates representing 23+ states slated to attend. Register now and don’t forget to check out our sponsorship opportunities (some including free registrations).

Ahead of COSSA’s annual Social Science Advocacy Day, join COSSA for the next Headlines webinar, “Making Your Voice Heard in Washington: Day of Action“. The COSSA staff will cover recent policy developments, share tips on how to advocate from home, and provide ways for you to get involved during Advocacy Day! Register now and join the conversation.

Headlines is a webinar series available to COSSA member organizations. Watch for additional webinar announcements, and previous webinar recordings, on the COSSA website.

As Congress continues to grapple with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) lapse in funding, House Republicans have reportedly left Capitol Hill for their annual retreat. As previously reported, some Members of Congress—including House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL)—are pushing for a second reconciliation package to increase funding for the Department of Defense. Notably, Members on both sides of the aisle have argued against funding the department outside of the normal appropriations bills and, according to recent reports, President Trump may remain unconvinced on the controversial measure. It is likely to be a point of contention during the retreat as House Republicans set their legislative priorities for the year.

Further, on Sunday, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed,” referring to the SAVE Act (H.R. 22), an election reform bill to require identification at polling stations. The bill has already advanced through the House but has yet to be voted on by the Senate, which would require several Senate Democrats to break rank with the party to pass the measure. In response, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated, “If Trump is saying he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: there will be total gridlock in the Senate.”

In preparation for drafting fiscal year (FY) 2027 appropriations legislation, the House Appropriations Committee has released guidance on submitting programmatic and report language requests for Members. Deadlines for each subcommittee’s requests can be found here. While it remains unclear when the President will release his annual budget request, it is likely that Congress will forge ahead with drafting their appropriations bills regardless of the President’s timeline.

Stay tuned for COSSA’s continued coverage on the appropriations process. 

On February 18, the House Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) produce a comprehensive review of Federal and State Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulations. The letter, which was led by Chairman Brian Babin (R-TX) and Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Jay Obernolte (R-CA), highlights several legislative efforts taken to regulate AI in recent years and notes that the requested review is intended to “help ensure Congress has a clear understanding of the existing regulatory landscape as it evaluates the appropriate path forward for artificial intelligence policy.”

Notably, the Committee pointed to several requests from Congress for a comprehensive review of legislative actions, including in the Bipartisan Senate Working Group’s report, A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the U.S. Senate and the House Bipartisan Task Force Report on Artificial Intelligence. Both reports were released in 2024.

Stay tuned for COSSA’s continued coverage on AI policy.

According to reporting by Nature, federal science agencies continue to experience delays in receiving the okay to start spending their fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations from Congress. As previously reported, Congress completed its work on FY 2026 appropriations for most federal science agencies earlier this year. However, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been slow to approve agency spending plans, which are required to be delivered to OMB within 30 days of enactment of the appropriations bills. Traditionally, agencies had authority to start spending portions of their appropriations immediately and continuing in monthly increments until its spending plan is approved by OMB. However, OMB changed the policy last year to restrict use of these monthly allotments for “essential expenses,” such as salaries.

Because of the delays, Nature reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued only about 30 percent of the research grants it typically would by this point in the fiscal year, while the National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued about 20 percent.

Congressional Democrats have objected OMB’s actions, asserting the Administration must release the funds as required by law or risk further disruption to U.S. research.

The National Science Board (NSB), the governing and oversight body of the National Science Foundation (NSF), met on February 25. The agenda included a briefing on NSF’s new “management structure,” presented by Brian Stone, who is performing the duties of the NSF Director, and Micah Cheatham, NSF’s Chief Management Officer.

The speakers discussed recent efforts to reduce the NSF workforce in response to White House guidance and executive orders on “optimizing the federal workforce.” In addition to reductions in force (RIFs) taken over the last year, NSF’s efforts have focused on reducing the ratio of executives to non-executives within the workforce, adding non-executive supervisors, and reducing the number of layers between the NSF Director and front-line staff. This has included changes in the roles of IPAs, or “rotators,” across the Foundation.

They also discussed what they called “common sense changes to reduce the workload,” including plans to consolidate research solicitations from over 200 to less than 100. This action has been hinted at during previous NSF events, but details remain sparse.

Little public information is available related to the topics discussed by Stone and Cheatham. Both have said that the move of NSF to its new location in Alexandria, VA is taking precedence and impacting the timing of some of the other topics discussed.

A recording of the meeting is available on the NSB website. 

On February 27, Department of Education Senior Advisor Dr. Amber Northern delivered a report, Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences, to Secretary Linda McMahon with recommendations on how to reform the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The report comes after Northern was appointed to the role in May in an effort to “modernize” the agency (see previous coverage). In September, the Department of Education also released a request for public comment on restructuring the agency, which reportedly influenced Northern’s recommendations (see previous coverage). About the report, she said:

“IES has set the standard for high-quality education research these last 25 years, but now is the time to look at its work with fresh eyes and renewed focus, so that we can drive real progress for student outcomes in these very challenging times.”

The report highlights several foundational building blocks of IES that Northern believes are key to the agency’s continued success, including the agency’s independence from partisan influence and racial, cultural, gender or regional bias; scientific integrity policy that produces high-quality data and research; statistical infrastructure that is essential for measuring the health of the U.S. education system; and diversity of research topics. Northern recommends any restructuring efforts build upon the already existing infrastructure and includes six “big shift” recommendations for the Secretary to consider, including:

• Award grants to research areas addressing the nation’s most pressing concerns rather than awarding “scattershot” grants;
• Develop an efficient and coordinated data strategy;
• Prioritize multi-state awards;
• Direct research goals towards “practicality, innovation, and relevance;”
• Build a uniform infrastructure for its Regional Education Labs (RELs); and
• Narrow the scope of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC).

Also included in the report is an analysis of the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), which is housed within IES, and Northern’s recommendations for how to modernize the agency. The report raises concerns about the timeliness of the release of data as well as data sets not being integrated across research areas and surveys. To this end, Northern recommends the Department of Education support investments in the technology needed to collect data in a timely manner, and prioritize data integration across agencies, which Northern pointed out was a common theme among stakeholder responses to the agency’s request for public comment.

The full report can be found here.