Policy Update (27 May 2025)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) paused its Reductions in Force (RIF) plans after a district court in California temporarily blocked the “Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative” executive order. On 15 May 2025, the House Science Committee held a hearing to evaluate NASA’s planetary defense strategy. In an ongoing battle with higher education, the Trump administration plans to terminate all federal grants to Harvard University after accusing the university of unfair admissions practices. A judge recently blocked the administration’s attempts to bar foreign student enrollment at Harvard. The nomination of Jared Isaacman as the NASA Administrator is proceeding, with a Senate vote likely to happen in early June. For more information, please see: 

• What’s Ahead: The week of May 19th, 2025 (AIP FYI) 
• What’s Happening in Space Policy 25-31 May 2025 (SpacePolicyOnline) 
• Congress Examines NASA’s Planetary Protection Duty (Payload) 
• Trump administration moves to cut all remaining federal contracts with Harvard (Reuters) 
• Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard (AP) 
• Senate sets up early June vote on Isaacman nomination to lead NASA (SpaceNews) 

The House of Representatives passed their reconciliation bill on Thursday morning, 22 May 2025, by a vote of 215 – 214. The 1,000+ page bill is named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, slashes clean energy tax breaks, reduces government spending for programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and raises the federal debt limit by $4 trillion. The bill also directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission to identify 600 MHz of radio spectrum for auction. In response, the AAS wrote a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee, urging them to exclude frequency bands allocated to radio astronomy from auction consideration. The bill is currently under review by the Senate and is likely to undergo numerous changes before being passed in the upper chamber. Congress aims to send the reconciliation bill to the White House for the president’s signature by 4 July 2025. 

In case you missed it, the AAS has initiated another Action Alert, urging our Senators to sign three “Dear Colleague” letters in support of our federal science agencies. These letters are similar to the companion letters circulated in the House earlier this month. Sen. Kelly (AZ) led the letter in support of NASA Science, Sen. Markey (MA) led the letter in support of NSF, and Sen. Durbin (IL) and Sen. Duckworth (IL) led the letter in support of DOE Office of Science. The deadline for Senators to sign these letters passed last week. We will have the final list of Senate signatories in our next policy update. 

The House versions of these “Dear Colleague” letters garnered more signatures than last year, thanks in large part to the advocacy of AAS members. We garnered 83 signatories in support of NASA Science, 132 signatories in support of NSF, and 122 signatories in support of the Department of Energy Office of Science. Almost 1,500 AAS members emailed or called their members of Congress to sign on to these letters. Thank you all for your advocacy! 

The appropriations committees will now work to develop appropriations bills, which we expect to be released by mid-July. In the House, the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill (which includes NSF, NASA, and the National Institute of Standards & Technology) is scheduled for subcommittee markup on 14 July, while the Energy and Water bill (which includes the Department of Energy) is scheduled for subcommittee markup on 7 July. 

The AAS is also preparing to send a letter, addressed to the House Science Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, that voices our concerns about the major reorganization plans at NSF and urges Congress to exercise their oversight authority over the science agency. Thirty-five other science organizations and universities have signed on to the letter.

The AAS policy team will be in Alaska for the AAS summer meeting from 8-12 June 2025, and we will not be writing a policy update for the week of June 8th. Our next policy update will be available on 24 June. Follow us on Bluesky (@policy.aas.org) and X (@AAS_Policy) to stay up-to-date with the latest updates. As always, if you have questions or comments, please email [email protected].