Rejects Administration’s Proposed Funding Cuts and Praises Population Research
In September, with only weeks before the current fiscal year ends, the House Appropriations Committee passed two Fiscal Year 2026 spending bills that together fund most of the federal agencies that directly and indirectly support the population sciences. In some respects, the House versions of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations bills are similar to versions approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee (see August 4 PAA blog). Most importantly, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees firmly rejected the Administration’s proposals to, among other things, slash the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and drastically reorganize the agency as well as reduce funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and impose across-the-board indirect cost rates.
Before they can be enacted, both versions of the CJS and LHHS appropriations bills must be considered on the House and Senate floors and reconciled in a final version that the President then signs into law. It is very unlikely all of these steps will transpire before FY 2026 begins on October 1. Congress and the Administration will need to agree on a continuing resolution (CR) to keep federal agencies open or risk a government shutdown. The PAA Office of Government Affairs is monitoring developments and will issue an action alert if necessary.
FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations
On September 9, the House Appropriations Committee advanced its version of the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) Appropriations bill, which provides annual appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Education, Department of Labor, and other agencies.
Similar to the Senate bill, the Committee rejects the President’s proposals to reduce the NIH budget by 40 percent, cut CDC by more than half, and slash funding for the Institute of Education Sciences within the Department of Education. In addition, the bill rejects Trump’s plan to reorganize the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which would have, among other things, moved the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) out of the CDC into a new HHS Office of Strategy. The House bill does give a nod to the President’s “Make America Healthy Again Initiative” by including $100 million “to allow the [HHS] Secretary to invest in prevention innovation programs for rural communities as proposed in the fiscal year 2026 budget request.” Unlike the Senate bill, the House LHHS bill seeks to eliminate funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The House bill includes a total of $47.8 billion in program level funding for the NIH, which is $456 million below the FY 2025 enacted level. For comparison, the Senate bill included $48.7 billion for NIH, a slight increase from current funding. Like the Senate, the House Committee rejected the President’s proposed slashing of the NIH budget in FY 2026. The President’s budget included a total of $29.3 billion for the agency, which would have resulted in a 40 percent budget cut. The President’s budget also proposed a major reorganization of the NIH, including consolidation of most institutes and elimination of others altogether; the House and Senate bills both reject the proposed reorganization. The Committee report accompanying the bill includes language “commending” the Administration for its proposal; however, it states that “…any large-scale restructuring proposal remains under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Energy and Committee [NIH’s authorizing committee],” and “The Committee looks forward to Congress continuing to work with the Administration regarding innovative ideas at the National Institutes of Health.”
The report accompanying the House LHHS bill also rejected the Administration’s efforts to implement a 15 percent cap on indirect cost reimbursement. However, it did not offer an alternative. Instead, the Committee acknowledges concerns about making the current model more transparent and efficient, as well as recommendations for a new Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost model developed by stakeholders and notes “such efforts are a valuable contribution to the dialogue about the future of F&A rates.”
In addition, the report included language regarding population research supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which is similar to language that accompanied the Senate version of the FY 2026 LHHS appropriations bill:
Population Research.—The Committee has commended NICHD for supporting prospective, population representative longitudinal studies, including the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Data from these studies are used widely to inform research and training activities conducted by thousands of scientists at universities nationwide, including underserved institutions, and are heavily used by new and early-stage investigators. These studies are the only nationally representative data scientists may use to analyze, for example, how parental and grandparental characteristics affect children’s outcomes and the impact of adverse childhood experiences over the course of life. The Committee is concerned to learn that NICHD is proposing funding reductions to these surveys, which could result in the permanent loss of invaluable data that could be used to assess and track long-term health and wellbeing outcomes in infants, children, and adolescents. NICHD is encouraged to prioritize supporting these surveys. The Committee requests an update on this topic in the fiscal year 2027 congressional justification.
National Center for Health Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics
Several statistical agencies of interest to the PAA are funded by the LHHS bill. In their version of the bill, the House recommends NCHS receive $187.4 million, the same amount as the Senate bill and the FY 2025 level, and 7.1 percent above the President’s request. With respect to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the House LHHS bill provides the agency with $714 million, a $10 million increase above the FY 2025 enacted level but flat with the Senate’s bill. The President’s request included a $56 million, or 8.6 percent, cut to BLS.
Additional information about the House LHHS bill is available in press releases issued by the Committee’s leadership: Majority press release and Minority press release.
FY 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations
On September 10, 2025, by a vote of 34 to 28, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Fiscal Year 2026 CJS Appropriations bill, which funds several agencies important to the Population Association of America (PAA), particularly the U.S. Census Bureau and National Science Foundation (NSF).
Census Bureau
As The Census Project summarized in a recent blog, the bill would allocate $1.6765 billion for the Census Bureau in Fiscal Year 2026, which is $294 million above the agency’s FY25 enacted level and the same as President Trump’s proposed budget. It would provide $288.5 million for Current Surveys and Programs ($40 million below the FY25 enacted level) and $1.388 billion for Periodic Censuses and Programs ($334 million above the FY25 enacted level). The House proposed level is also $156 million more than the Senate Appropriations Committee’s recommended funding level in their version of the FY 2026 CJS bill.
In addition, the House CJS appropriations bill includes a pair of legislative provisions similar to language in the House FY 2025 CJS bill:
- “SEC. 556. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to allow the United States Census Bureau to include aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States in rendering apportionment determinations in subsequent decennial censuses.”
- “SEC. 605. None of the funds in this Act may be used to enforce involuntary compliance, or to inquire more than twice for voluntary compliance with any survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census.”
Prior to the committee’s consideration of the bill, The Census Project Co-Directors, including Mary Jo Mitchell, PAA’s Director of Government Affairs, sent all committee members a letter, expressing concerns about how Section 605 could negatively affect the Census Bureau’s non-response follow up operations overall. In addition, a dozen business groups, led by the Insights Association, communicated similar concerns about Section 605. Fortunately, the Senate Appropriations Committee did not include similar provisions in their version of the FY 2026 CJS appropriations bill.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
With respect to the NSF, the House Appropriations Committee recommended the agency receive $7 billion, which $3.097 billion more than the President requested in the Administration’s FY 2026 budget request.
While the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended NSF receive $9 billion in FY 2026, the devil is in the details. The Senate bill prioritizes NSF’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account by proposing an increase of $116 million or nearly 50 percent for large scale instrumentation and facilities. The Senate report states:
“The Committee strongly supports NSF’s role in building and operating groundbreaking research facilities, especially in areas that maintain or enhance U.S. leadership in key disciplines… The Committee expects NSF to fully fund its U.S. scientific research facilities and instruments to adequately support scientists and students engaged in sustained, cutting-edge research.”
To accommodate this, the research accounts under the Senate bill would be reduced by more than $1 billion or 14 percent below current levels. The MREFC account would also increase under the House bill, but only by about 7 percent.
Notably, both the President’s budget request and the House CJS bill proposed to eliminate the direct appropriation for the STEM Education Directorate (EDU). The CJS appropriations bill usually provides a specific funding level for Research and Related Activities, which funds NSF’s research directorates, and separate funding for STEM Education. The House endorses the President’s plan to significantly reduce the EDU Directorate’s budget (this is not surprising given the cuts already made by the White House earlier this year specifically regarding DEI programming) and roll remaining EDU programs into the Research and Related Activities line. In contrast, the Senate bill would maintain current practice by appropriating a specific funding level for the STEM Education Directorate.
Additional information about the House CJS bill is available in press releases issued by the Committee’s leadership: Majority press release and Minority press release.
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