Outlook on the future of the US science: Funding Act prevents government arrest prevents

Outlook on the future of the US science: Funding Act prevents government arrest prevents

The US government averted a shutdown at the end of the last week after President Donald Trump signed an issue agreement that is likely to fix modest cuts in science financing this year. Nevertheless, there is a greater crisis for science, Since the Trump administration and the Republicans in the congress massive cuts in the federal budget for 2025 and the following years.

When the federal expenses follow the current trends, the "Continuing Act" adopted on March 15, that the total expenditure for research and development in the current budget year, which ends on September 30, is expected to be around $ 193 billion-a relatively moderate decline of 3.5 % compared to the expenditure of the last financial year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Aaas) in Washington DC. Part of these cuts takes place from the budget of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), The world's largest donor for biomedical research . The expenditure agreement provides for a reduction in funds for the authority by 67 % by the law on the remedies of the 21st century, which includes investments in the "Cancer Moonshot" program from 2016 and the "Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies" (Brain) initiative; The total expenditure under the law will decrease by $ 280 million to $ 127 million.

The expenditure project, which was designed exclusively by the Republicans in the congress, is omitted many of the usual individual posts that the open means of the authorities precisely define. This enables the Trump administration to make freedom to decide where the money flows-one of the reasons why many Democrats threatened to conclude the government in the congress instead of voting for the law. Late last week, however, a small group of democratic senators, including the minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer from New York, voted against the rest of the party and advanced the law to keep the government's doors open.

It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will actually issue the money assigned in the continuation agreement. In the two months since Trump has been in office , his team has earlier expenditure laws of the congress ignores and Freighted Bundesmittel and ended , including those of the NIH who do not support the administration. The latest spending agreement will probably not change this dynamic, says Jennifer Zeitzer, who runs the office for public relations at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Rockville, Maryland. “We are currently in a different era where nothing is normal.”

Experts in politics say that the Trump team could still try to shorten the budgets of this year with a legislative package from "revoking"-which is implemented by a process that is separated from the budget process that is used to finance the government. This would be the simple - and legal - path for the White House to enforce many cuts in this year's budget, according to the observers of politics.