House Narrowly Passes Latest Appropriations Package for Science Agencies

As previously reported, the House and Senate passed a three-bill package earlier this month that included fiscal year (FY) 2026 funding for federal science agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). COSSA’s in-depth analysis of the CJS bill can be found here.

Late last week, the House passed a separate four-bill package that contains the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) appropriations bill—which provides funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and more—as well as the Defense, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security bills. Similarly to the CJS bill, the LHHS bill, which can be read here, largely rejects the President’s proposed budget cuts to federal science agencies. In order to pass the package, however, the House considered the Homeland Security bill separately due to opposition from the House Democrats in light of events in Minnesota. Only seven Democrats broke rank to support the bill, while the other three bills passed with bipartisan support.

COSSA will be releasing a full analysis of the package in the coming days. In the meantime, here is a preview of what is included in the latest minibus:

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), have announced they will not support the funding package until the DHS provisions are removed. It’s unclear if the Senate intends to split the package in order to pass the bills; however, with the continuing resolution (CR) set to expire at the end of this week, Congress risks another partial government-shutdown if they do not finalize the appropriations bills.

A summary of the bill from the House Republicans can be found here, and a summary from the House Democrats here. A joint explanatory statement between the House and Senate for the LHHS bill can be found here.

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