Parag Mahajan

The FY2027 President's Budget Request proposes cuts to science agencies, including cutting the NSF by 55% and eliminating NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate. I've seen people treating the budget request as if it's a final outcome. This is just the start for FY2027 budget cycle! Some facts for folks not as steeped in DC budget world -- 1 - The President's Budget Request is a request. It's the White House telling Congress what it would like to spend, reflecting the administration's policy priorities and the direction it would like to head. Congress will still decide on the actual appropriations level through its usual budget process. 2 - Last year, the FY2026 PBR proposed cutting NSF by 57% (from $9.1B to $3.9B) and NIH by 41% (from $47B to $27.9B). However, Congress enacted the FY2026 budget with a 3.4% cut to NSF and gave NIH a 1% increase. Congress did not implement the President's budget request. 3 - Congress wrote into last year's bill that no NSF directorate gets cut more than 5% relative to FY2024, and there's no reason to believe that appropriators in Congress have changed their position. 4 - Every Trump budget request, both in his first term and now in his second, has proposed deep cuts to civilian science agencies. Congress has rejected these proposals each time. The real impacts on the scientific ecosystem have come through different channels like cancelled grants, shifting to multi-year funding, indirect cost rate fights, and reducing agency staff capacity due to RIFs. 5 - The PBR may still have near-term effects. Historically, agencies begin planning around the PBR even when it's widely understood that Congress will not end up enacting the budget as the President proposed. If patterns from the current term are any guide, planning based on the request could mean slowdowns in new awards, staff reassignments, and early moves to wind down targeted programs. 6 - Based on historical appropriations cycles, FY2027 appropriations will almost certainly not be enacted before the November 2026 midterms. Agencies like NSF and NIH will likely operate under a continuing resolution at FY2026 levels. The final FY2027 budget will most likely be finalized after the midterms by a Congress with different political dynamics than the current one. For economists and social scientists seeing the President's Budget Request and reconsidering career plans: know that the PBR is not the budget for FY2027. It's a serious signal for the social sciences of where the administration would like to take science funding, but I would be very hesitant to make career decisions based on this.