Policy Update (24 June 2025)

In case you missed it, AAS published a blog post about the detailed cuts to NASA Science and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the FY2026 President’s Budget Request. Casey Dreier from the Planetary Society created some charts that show the disastrous impact that these proposed cuts would have for NASA Science. On 31 May, President Trump announced that he is withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator. Isaacman had already gone through his confirmation hearing and was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. There is no official word on who will replace Isaacman, and it will likely take months to confirm a new Administrator. For more information, please check out: 

• What’s Ahead: The week of June 16th, 2025 (AIP FYI) 
• What’s Happening in Space Policy 22-28 June 2025 (SpacePolicyOnline) 
• Trump says he’s withdrawing the nomination of Musk associate Jared Isaacman to lead NASA (AP) 

The Senate has been amending the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Senate wants to pass their version of the reconciliation bill before 4 July, though this deadline is fast approaching. As a reminder, this 1,000+ page bill primarily addresses mandatory spending and the budget (not appropriations), and it does not directly impact funding for astronomy in its current form. The bill only needs a simple majority to pass in the Senate due to the reconciliation process. This week, the Senate Parliamentarian is making sure all parts of the bill deal directly with budgetary spending and revenues, and MacDonough has already identified and removed portions of the bill labeled extraneous. All of this is to say that the bill is already shaping up to be different than the version that the House passed in May, and it is unclear when the bill will pass the Senate and make its way to the president for his signature. For more information, I recommend reading Punchbowl’s daily updates on the bill. 

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) is scheduled to markup their FY2026 spending bill on 7 July 2025, and the full Committee will markup the bill on 10 July 2025. In the Senate, the CJS Subcommittee and full Committee markups have not yet been scheduled. Next month will be an important one as we see how the House and the Senate allocate spending for our federal science agencies, and this is a critical time to continue your advocacy efforts to your congressmen. 

The AAS policy team had a great time at the 246th AAS meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, two weeks ago. If you were there in person, I hope you had the chance to chat with us at the AAS booth and/or attend the policy plenary titled “Public Policy Plenary: The Current Landscape for Science Policy and How YOU Can Make a Difference.” We had a great turnout, and it was amazing to see such high engagement from the astronomical community in support of science advocacy. 

Last week, over 50 members of the Solar Physics Division came to Washington, DC, to advocate for Heliophysics and a robust topline for NASA Science and NSF. 

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].