Policy Update (9 July 2026)

On 1 July, all 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus sent a letter to Director Russ Vought of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) insisting that he rescind the OMB proposed rule on federal grants and other forms of federal financial assistance. Conversely, we have heard that Senator Jim Banks is leading a draft letter in strong support of the proposed rule. The Heritage Foundation reported on the proposed rule, touting that the proposed decision-making authority by political appointees is the “kind of adult supervision will make sure that the taxpayer is funding the activity that he votes for at election time.” Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to Director Vought asking for the comment period to be extended by 90 days and for OMB to “withdraw portions of the rule that would unduly burden scientific and biomedical research and small communities.”

As reported by Clare Zhang at AIP FYI, Director Vought testified in front of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on 30 June, where multiple members of Congress questioned OMB’s proposed changes to the federal grant process. Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), however, expressed support for the proposed rule and said it provides “more safeguards on the taxpayers’ dollar.”

As a reminder, the public comment period for the OMB proposed rule ends on 13 July. Take a few minutes today to submit a comment on how this proposed rule may affect you, your research group, and/or your institution. We also ask you to urge your members of Congress to take action against this proposed rule, which you can do using our tool here.

On 24 June, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a comment request regarding the agency’s plans to revise the NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance (what is currently known as the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide). This would change the agency’s proposal and award policies to comply with 2 CFR 200 (commonly known as Uniform Guidance), to which OMB is currently proposing significant changes, including changing it from optional guidance for agencies to mandatory regulation. The comment period deadline for the NSF notice is 24 August. On 29 June, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, sent a letter to Brian Stone, the Acting Director for NSF, to “rescind this draft immediately and cease all efforts to implement OMB’s proposed revisions to the uniform guidance until that rule is finalized.”

On Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) appropriations, the House has passed all 12 spending bills out of the Appropriations Committee and two of these, the Agriculture and Military Construction-Veteran Affairs bills, through the House. The Senate has yet to pass any appropriations bills out of Committee following disagreements over top-line spending levels. The status of FY27 appropriations bills can be tracked here.

Dara Norman, AAS Past President; Andrew Baker, AAS Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy Co-Chair; and Roohi Dalal held meetings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on 29 May and 26 June to discuss the FCC application for Reflect Orbital. You can read the details of the meetings from our ex parte summary here.

For more science and space policy updates, check out:

• What’s Ahead: The Week of July 6, 2026 (AIP FYI)
• What’s Happening in Space Policy July 5–18, 2026 (SpacePolicyOnline)

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. For a chronological list of recent AAS actions and public policy updates, check out our Public Policy Updates page.