The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to maintain funding for the National Science Foundation on July 17, going against President Donald Trump’s plans to cut the agency’s budget by more than $5 billion. The vote may preserve funding for research projects across the country, including those at the University.
In 2015-2024, the NSF averaged $2.1 billion in grant funding, but in 2025, the foundation has only funded $1 billion in research grants, with outgoing funding being cut by nearly 50%, according to an article by the New York Times.
Trump said he wanted to extend the cuts even further, hoping to cut the NSF’s budget from $9 billion down to $3.9 billion in his proposal for next year’s budget. Going against Trump’s plans of a $5 billion cut, the U.S. House of Representatives suggested only a $2 billion cut to the NSF, but the Senate proposed to maintain the NSF budget at $9 billion, although no final budget has been agreed to or approved.
“The bill funds research in critical scientific and technological fields that are necessary to ensure the United States remains competitive with China,” said Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Dan Stanzione, the executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center, which received a $457 million investment from the NSF in 2024, said the Senate is dealing with the “practical reality” that investment in the NSF is necessary for the U.S. to maintain technological leadership on the global scale, specifically in staying ahead of China on artificial intelligence.
“If we want to have our students and our researchers have access to the kind of tools and industry and both build the models and the workforce they’re gonna need, then we need access to this kind of infrastructure,” Stanzione said.
Stanzione said he has seen a lot of NSF grants cancelled at the University and the Senate’s vote to preserve some of the NSF funding is a step in the right direction.
“Seeing both houses of Congress recognize the importance of the federal sciences investment is really encouraging for us doing the work … there’s a long way to go, but it is a really encouraging sign,” Stanzione said.
Aditya Akella, a University researcher who received a $12 million NSF grant to research how artificial intelligence could lead to greater innovation in computer systems in 2024, said maintaining NSF funding is essential for making the kinds of scientific discoveries that can change the world.
“A lot of projects that are high risk and high reward are exclusively NSF funded,” Akella said. “We want to invent new science, and see how that moves the world in new directions. That kind of open-ended exploration needs the kind of support that the NSF provides.”
