Congressional News
House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee Holds Department of Education Budget Hearing
On May 21, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) Appropriations subcommittee held a hearing about the Department of Education’s budget request for the upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon testifying for the committee. The hearing was sharply divided, with subcommittee Democrats, led by Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), extensively questioning Secretary McMahon about the Trump Administration’s decimation of the Department. Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and the committee’s other Republican members praised the proposed cuts and focused their questioning on other aspects of the proposed budget, such as school choice….
Welch, Baldwin Host Two-Day Forum to Spotlight How Americans are Harmed by Trump’s HHS Actions
Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) held a two-day forum to spotlight how Americans are being harmed by the Trump Administration’s mass firings at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This comes after the Senators hosted a similar townhall on Trump and Musk’s Cuts to Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease Cures (see previous COSSA coverage). During the two-day forum, Sens. Welch and Baldwin invited former federal agencies officials, including Dr. Anne Schuchat, former Principal Deputy Director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ms. Trina Dutta, former Chief of Staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health…
Senators, Science Leaders Discuss NSF Cuts
Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) hosted a press event on May 20 to discuss the impacts Trump Administration actions are having on the U.S. scientific enterprise and, in particular, the National Science Foundation (NSF). Sen. Cantwell serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which has oversight over the NSF. In her opening remarks, Cantwell noted that at the time of the event, the Administration has terminated 1,530 research grants totaling more than $1 billion. In addition, the President is seeking a 55 percent cut to NSF in the fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget….
Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly Passes Away
Longtime Northern Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) passed away on May 21 after a battle with esophageal cancer; Connolly announced his cancer diagnosis in November. First elected to the House of Representatives in 2008, Rep. Connolly had been a vocal advocate for the federal workforce, many of whom reside in his suburban DC district. His website includes resources for federal employees who have been affected by Trump Administration actions. Connolly has also been a longtime advocate for mental health. Rep. Connolly introduced the Esophageal Cancer Awareness Act on May 20 prior to his passing.
Congress To Mark-Up Key Reconciliation Bills
As previously reported by COSSA, Congress is in the process of drafting budget reconciliation bills for one “big, beautiful bill” to extend the Trump Administration’s tax breaks. Late last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee released their draft bills and are scheduled to mark them up this week. The House Agriculture Committee is also scheduled to mark up their bill. House Republicans are hoping to pass their bills before Memorial Day and expecting to pass the final bill before the month-long August recess. However, the House Energy and Commerce bill will be…
Senate Appropriators Hold Hearing on Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation
On April 30, Senate Appropriators held a bipartisan hearing on Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation where they invited several witnesses from the scientific community, including Dr. Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Dr. Hermann Haller, President of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Dr. Cartier Esham, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Stronger Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Barry Paul Sleckman, Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Emily Stenson, a patient advocate. During the hearing, several members of the committee across the aisle…
Congress Returns from Recess; Begins Drafting Reconciliation Bills
After a two-week recess, Congress has returned to Capitol Hill determined to make progress on reconciliation legislation with an eye toward enacting one “big, beautiful bill” to extend the Trump Administration’s tax breaks. As previously reported by COSSA, Congress passed a reconciliation blueprint through the House and Senate in March. The blueprint directs Congressional committees to identify cuts to agencies and programs under their jurisdiction and, over the past weekend, the House Homeland Security Committee (HHSC) and House Armed Services Committee (HASC) released their draft bills. In these bills, $69 billion would be allocated to border security and $150 billion to defense priorities. More…
Leaked HHS Passback Budget Includes NIH Reorganization, Cuts to Health Agencies
On April 10, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passback budget was leaked to the public. A passback budget is a preliminary proposal in which Federal Agencies and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) negotiate discretionary funding and legislative priorities for inclusion in the Presidential Budget Request (PBR). It should not be considered the final version to be included in the PBR when it is released. Notable provisions within the leaked passback: The Presidential Budget Request (PBR) is rumored to be released in May with the possibility of a skinny budget sooner. Stay tuned to COSSA’s continued coverage on…
House and Senate Pass Budget Resolution Blueprint
Earlier this month, the Senate passed a budget resolution in a 51-48 vote after an all-night voting marathon, inching closer to enacting President Trump’s priorities around tax breaks (see previous coverage). Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), who cited concerns of increasing the deficit, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME), who rejected the proposed cuts to Medicaid, were the only Republicans to vote against the resolution. On April 10, the Senate’s blueprint passed through the House in a 216 to 214 vote after Sen. Thune agreed to adhere to the House’s $1.5 trillion in budget cuts to pacify fiscal hawks in the…
Budget Reconciliation Takes Center Stage; Members of Congress Push Back on Executive Actions
With the fiscal year (FY) 2025 process (mostly) in the rearview mirror following the passage of a full-year continuing resolution (CR) earlier this month, Congress is returning its attention to passing a budget resolution to enact some of the Trump Administration’s top priorities (see previous COSSA coverage). As previously reported by COSSA, the House passed their budget resolution in February that included a permanent extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts and $1.5 trillion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. In order to unlock the reconciliation process—which would allow the tax cuts and spending reductions to pass by a simple majority…
Senators Baldwin and Welch Host Town Hall on Cuts to Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease Cures
On March 26, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Peter Welch (D-VT) hosted a Congressional townhall on Trump and Musk’s Cuts to Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease Cures. The event was held in response to efforts by the Administration to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including major reductions in the NIH workforce. The town hall featured remarks from former NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli; Dr. Sterling Johnson, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor and Associate Director of Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; Dr. Whitney Wharton, Emory University Associate Professor and Alzheimer’s Disease researcher; Dr. Larry Saltzman, former Executive Research Director for…
President Signs Full-year Continuing Resolution
On March 15, the President signed into law a full-year continuing resolution (CR) for fiscal year (FY) 2025 with only a few hours to spare before the previous CR, enacted in December, was scheduled to lapse (see previous COSSA coverage). The stopgap funding measure, which passed in the Republican-controlled House in a 217-213 vote and the Republican-controlled Senate in a 54-46 vote, is considered to be a “clean” CR, meaning funding levels will be kept at the FY 2024 level, with a few changes, until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. However, given the bare-bones nature of a CR,…
House Science Committee Addresses Threats to Federally Funded Research in Hearing
On March 5, the House Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing on Assessing the Threat to U.S. Funded Research. Witnesses included Mr. Jeffrey Stoff, President, Center for Research Security & Integrity; Mr. John F. Sargent Jr., Retired, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy, Congressional Research Service; and Dr. Maria Zuber, E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Presidential Advisor for Science and Technology Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In his opening remarks, Chairman Rich McCormick (R-GA) highlighted the importance of remaining a global leader in scientific research while protecting U.S. research from foreign competitors….
Congress Pushes to Enact Final CR as Trump Administration Delivers List of Funding Anomalies
Congress is facing a March 14 deadline for finalizing the fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bill, which is when a continuing resolution (CR) expires. In recent days, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) directed appropriators to prepare a final stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government operating through the end of the fiscal year (September 30). The Trump Administration has delivered a list of “anomalies,” or changes, they would like to see in the final FY 2025 spending bill. This includes increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), veterans’ affairs, defense accounts,…
119th Congress: Profile of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has jurisdiction over health care, education, employment and retirement policies, including authorization of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Education, and more. Like all Senate Committees, the leadership of the HELP Committee shifted to Republican-control following the 2024 elections. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is now serving as Chair and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as Ranking Member. As Ranking Member in the last Congress, Cassidy indicated his desire to restructure the National Institutes of Health through a series of public comments and…
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing on OSTP Director Nominee Michael Kratsios
On February 25, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a confirmation hearing on the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director nominee, Michael Kratsios, and the Federal Trade Commissioner nominee, Mark Meador. As previously reported by COSSA, Kratsios served as Trump’s Chief Technology Officer and later as Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Department of Defense (DOD) during the first Trump term. During the hearing, Kratsios affirmed that he would “prioritize emerging technologies” if confirmed. Further, when Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) questioned Kratsios about the recent firings of federal…
Congress Inches Towards Budget Reconciliation; FY 2025 Appropriations Remains Uncertain
As the Republican-controlled Congress seeks to push forward the Trump Administration’s policy goals, the House and Senate have proposed budget reconciliation packages relating to increasing funding for the border and defense as well as limiting spending and renewing tax cuts. On February 13, House Republicans struck a deal within their conference to push forward the proposed 2025 budget reconciliation package. The package would direct committees to find $1.5 trillion worth of budget cuts while simultaneously providing $4.5 trillion to the Ways and Means Committee for tax cuts. The reconciliation bill would increase the deficit by up to $4 trillion over a decade….
119th Congress: Profile of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee
Representative Brian Babin (R-TX) has been appointed Chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, replacing Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), who departed due to Republican term limits for committee leadership (see previous COSSA coverage). Previously, Babin served as Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. Babin will serve alongside Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the committee. In the announcement of his appointment, Babin stated, “Between our nation’s booming science, space, and tech sectors and the growing threat posed by adversaries like Communist China, there has never been a more important time for this committee. Falling behind in any…
House SST Committee Holds Hearing on The State of U.S. Science and Technology
On February 5, the House Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee invited a panel of four experts across the science, research, and higher education communities for a hearing on the state of U.S. Science and Technology. The hearing explored the roles of public and private research and development (R&D) entities, strengthening national security, and addressing the recent freeze in federal funding enacted by the Trump Administration (see previous COSSA coverage). Witnesses included Heather Wilson, President of the University of Texas at El Paso and member of the National Science Board (NSB), Walter Copan, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer at…
FY 2025 Appropriations Uncertain as Congress Approaches CR Deadline
Fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding is set to expire on March 14 unless Congress acts. As previously reported, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) in December to keep the government funded until March, which is nearly six months into the fiscal year. The first step is for Congressional leaders to agree on topline numbers (see previous COSSA coverage). Following the House Republicans policy retreat in Florida, it was reported that lawmakers are seeking to pass the final appropriations bills before President Trump’s State of the Union Address, which has been scheduled for March 4. However, with the recent federal funding freeze memorandum…