Trump Administration’s Proposed Budget Slashes NASA, NOAA, Health Research

The approach the new administration has taken to halt and defund scientific research is purportedly to reset research priorities and save billions of dollars. However, research has shown that in the United States, $1 of investment in innovation produces an average return of $5. The Trump administration proposes cutting at least $36,132,000,000 from science-based agencies and institutions, which could have yielded $180,660,000,000 in returns.

These are some of the agencies and programs that are being threatened with cuts.

Going To the Moon and Mars… but how?

NASA’s cuts have been capturing the news cycle since they seem at odds with the administration’s claims of prioritizing getting humans to Mars. The new budget proposed a 24 percent cut from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion (the largest single-year cut to NASA funding in US history), canceling complex missions like the Mars Sample Return (which had been in trouble for a while), as well as crucial strategic plans like the new space station Lunar Gateway, whose modules are currently being built.

The budget claims that it will introduce $1 billion in new investment, but will increase specific human space exploration by only $647 million. It also eliminates the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft once they have carried out the next two Artemis missions, in favor of commercial alternatives such as SpaceX’s Starship (which exploded over the Caribbean in its last two launches). Many have highlighted the conflict of interest between Musk’s involvement in the administration and the push for NASA to be more reliant on private companies.

Even on the assumption that Starship meets its first human crew launch date of mid-2026, there is a lot that is unclear about how the budget prepares for lunar and Martian exploration by humans. A successful human expedition to Mars would be an epoch-defining mission, and it would require research and expertise from many sectors to face the many challenges for those astronauts. The budget doesn’t reflect those pressing needs. 

The proposal also reduced the investment in the International Space Station until it is retired in 2030. The suggestion is that by then, commercial space stations will be available, so the need for the ISS will be reduced, or maybe China will have the only space station.

Ideological cuts across the board

The Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement has been cut because, and we’re quoting the budget document directly here, it’s “woke”. The meaning of woke is not established in the document, but the term originated in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to mean being aware of important facts and issues, particularly in relation to racial and social injustices. It is now mostly used by right-wing politicians, media outlets, and commentators as a catch-all for subjects they do not agree with, such as climate change or evolution, or discussions on the rights of women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+, or disabled people.

NASA’s Climate and Earth monitoring services are set to be decimated, but even more so for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which loses a total of $1.52 billion, with the administration, for example, stating that new weather satellites would be taking “unnecessary climate measurements.” The proposal also states the budget terminates a variety of NOAA programs that push what it considers harmful agendas, including educational grant programs that it says “consistently funded efforts to radicalize students against markets and spread environmental alarm”, holding workshops specifically on equity and for “transgender women, and those who identify as nonbinary,” and promoting a book that fosters discussion on climate anxiety for children in therapy.

Ideological accusations are also used to justify the nearly $5 billion in cuts at the National Science Foundation, citing more “woke” examples like the University of Delaware receiving a grant “to develop and evaluate policy interventions to achieve sustainable equity, economic prosperity, and coastal resilience in the context of climate change.” It also proposes to cut “broadening participation” programs designed to attract underrepresented groups to science by $1.1 billion, an 80 percent cut from recent years.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the home of the most precise clock ever designed by humans, one that would lose one second in 40 billion years. It has lost $325 million as the Trump administration accuses the NIST of “a radical climate agenda”, although this meaning is not specified.

Health Research might never recover

The United States is the biggest funder of health research in the world. The budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was an investment beyond any other country or international organization. The Trump administration proposes to cut the budget from $48 billion to $27 billion, which would be the biggest cut the NIH has ever experienced.

Many of the NIH’s 27 institutes will be collapsed and funding for the ones focused specifically on carrying out minority-health and international research are being scrapped entirely. Many people have already been fired even before these proposed cuts, including the principal investigators of many crucial research programs on cancer, Alzheimer’s, HIV, and more. Among them was Dr Richard J. Youle, who won the Breakthrough Prize in 2021 for his contribution to understanding the role of cell death in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The US has tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths every month; the proposed budget cuts over $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funding. Even deeper cuts might be faced by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). It faces cuts of about $3.5 billion, about a third of its current budget, at a time when the CDC is monitoring the current bird flu and measles outbreaks in the US. 

It’s important to note this is the proposal, and it still has to pass Congress. It is unclear how much of these $168 billion cuts Congress will approve, but even Republican lawmakers don’t appear to be thrilled by all of them.