COSSA’s Analysis of the President’s FY 2025 Budget Request for Social and Behavioral Science

On March 11, the Biden Administration transmitted its fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request to Congress.

The FY 2025 budget was released while Congress was still working to finalize its annual appropriations bills for FY 2024 (the fiscal year that began October 1, 2023). The FY 2024 appropriations process was completed on March 22 with the passage of a second omnibus package (see related article). The first package was passed on March 8.

As COSSA has been reporting over the last several months, the FY 2024 appropriations bills were bound by strict budget caps that were agreed to in January (although the same deal was floated much earlier in 2023). These caps, unfortunately, have resulted in reductions to many accounts, returning some agency budgets back to FY 2023 levels or below. Some of these cuts were quite sizeable (e.g., National Science Foundation), making some of the increases proposed in the Administration’s FY 2025 budget appear larger than originally intended. In many cases, the FY 2025 request, if appropriated, would restore agency budgets to their FY 2023 levels with small increases on top of that. 

It is important to note that the budget deal struck earlier this year also includes spending caps for FY 2025, leaving little room for increases next year. As such, the Biden Administration’s budget request for FY 2025 includes much more modest proposals for federal science agencies, especially when compared to previous budgets when caps were not on the table.

COSSA will continue to report on the progress of FY 2025 funding legislation in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, we invite you to read our analysis to learn about the President’s proposals as they pertain to social and behavioral science research.