The Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE SC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released detailed budget requests for fiscal year (FY) 2026, providing additional information beyond the overview given in the FY2026 “skinny” President’s Budget Request (PBR). An earlier blog post breaks down the limited information in the skinny budget. For detailed information on NASA and the National Science Foundation, check out our earlier post. In this post, we dive into the details for DOE SC and NIST, highlighting the most significant impacts on our fields.

While this budget poses an existential threat to our disciplines, we must remember that it is only a budget request. Congress has the ultimate authority to determine funding levels for these agencies through the “appropriations” process. You have an important voice in the process, and you can exercise it by contacting your congressional offices. Here are a few actions you can take today:

• We have set up an easy form that you can use to both call and email your members of Congress in just a few minutes. We especially encourage you to pick up the phone. A phone call is 32% more likely to influence your member of Congress compared to a form email. If you are nervous about speaking to someone, don’t worry! Most calls will go to voicemail, especially if you call on the weekend or after 6:00 pm ET (but the office will still listen to your voicemail).
• Sending an individualized email can have an even higher impact than sending form messages. If you’d like the contact information for science staffers in your congressional offices, please email [email protected].
• We encourage you to set up meetings with your congressional offices to discuss the importance of robust federal funding for the sciences, particularly for your state/district. You don’t need to travel to DC for these meetings — you can schedule them in local district offices or over Zoom. For guidance on how to set up and prepare for these meetings, email us at [email protected], and see these slides from a recent webinar.
• For additional ideas about how you can take action, take a look at the suggested activities for our Week of Action, which took place after the skinny budget was released.
• To maximize your impact, consider reaching out to colleagues, friends, and family in other states/districts to encourage them to also take action using these resources.

DOE Office of Science

Overall, the budget proposes a 14% decrease to DOE SC funding (from $8.24 billion to $7.1 billion), a $1.1 billion decrease from enacted FY2025 levels. Within DOE SC, the budget suggests a 9% cut to High Energy Physics (HEP), which includes a 27% decrease in Cosmic Frontier Experimental Physics.

Cosmic Frontier Experimental Physics

The proposed 27% decrease in HEP's Cosmic Frontier Experimental Physics includes a 49% decrease to Research, which supports experiments like DESI, Vera Rubin, LZ, and SuperCDMS-SNOLAB. The budget states that "The Request will continue to support researchers exploring dark energy and dark matter, emphasizing collaborative efforts and the efficient application of AI/ML to drive discoveries within the leading experiments." There is a proposed 3% decrease to Facility Observations and Experimental Support, which supports the operation of the projects listed above.

Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4 (CMB-S4)

The budget suggests zeroing out the Project account line, which funded the engineering and design efforts for CMB-S4, stating, "The DOE was a partner in the CMB-S4 project (CD-0 issued July 25, 2019) seeking to detect primordial gravitational waves and search for relic particles. However, because the NSF has put the South Pole component of CMB-S4 on hold, the DOE is pausing its involvement to reassess its approach." You can read more about the project cancellation here.

NIST

Overall, the budget proposes a 43% cut (from $1,460 million to $839 million) for NIST in FY2026. This includes a 35% cut to Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS), an 82% cut to Industrial Technology Services (ITS), and a 48% cut to Construction of Research Facilities (CRF).

Scientific and Technical Research Services (STRS)

Within STRS, the budget proposal removes a one-time congressional external community project that cost $222 million in FY2024. The budget also suggests decreasing Laboratory Programs by 17%, Corporate Services by 22%, and Standards Programs and Special Programs by 7% compared to FY2024 enacted levels. The budget proposes reducing the staff within Laboratory Programs and Standards Coordination by 556 and 23 personnel, respectively.

In their justification for the Laboratory Programs cuts, the budget states:

"The request ... is consistent with the Administration’s government-wide reforms necessary to enable agencies to fulfill their statutory responsibilities in the most cost-effective manner possible and to allow NIST to invest in efforts that align with mission priorities in critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and technology. The proposed reductions include the strategic elimination of vacant positions as well as targeted programmatic streamlining efforts to align staffing levels with mission priorities. In the area of Exploratory Measurement Science, NIST will eliminate lower priority workforce development efforts and reduce the scale of internal programs that seed investments outside of critical and emerging technology areas."

One of the six major laboratory programs in NIST is the Physical Measurements Laboratory (PML), which "sets the definitive US standards for nearly every kind of measurement, including mass, time, frequency, temperature, electricity, and electromagnetic radiation." Within PML, the Atomic Spectroscopy Group offers data that is essential for astronomical and planetary science. ASG was terminated in April 2025.