The saga of the drawn-out Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations process finally ended on February 3, 2026, almost five months after the fiscal year began, when the president signed into law the last funding measure. That bill, H.R. 7148, included the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill, which funds, among other things, the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Health Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and National Center for Education Statistics—federal agencies that directly and indirectly support the population sciences. A few weeks earlier, Congress had passed and sent to the President, H.R. 6938, a bill providing funding for agencies in the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, including the Census Bureau and National Science Foundation.
As you may recall, last May, the FY 2026 appropriations deliberations began in earnest when the Trump Administration sent its proposed budget to Congress. The Administration’s FY 2026 budget contained alarming recommendations to cut, eliminate, and/or reorganize numerous federal agencies and departments. PAA worked independently and with its coalition partners to oppose the Administration’s suggested cuts to the NIH and NSF as well as its plan to reorganize the NIH, which would have eliminated the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
PAA is very grateful to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the leaders of the House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittees for listening to stakeholders and drafting and negotiating final versions of the FY 2026 appropriations bills that rejected the Administration’s most extreme cuts and reorganization proposals. In addition, PAA is pleased that Congress included language in reports accompanying the final funding measures that:
- Acknowledge the important contributions of NIH population research programs.
- Direct NIH to continue including qualified external scientists and stakeholders in searches to fill vacant IC Director positions.
- Limit NIH’s reliance on multi-year funding in FY 2026.
- Freeze the Administration’s 15 percent cap on indirect (Facilities and Administration) cost rates and encourage continued negotiations on potential improvements.
- Affirm the role of the NSF Social, Behavioral, Economic Directorate.
- Addresses numerous issues at the Census Bureau, including the 2026 Census Test and elimination of the agency’s outside expert advisory committees.
Below is a table summarizing the top lines of PAA’s priority federal agencies.
|
Agencies
|
Final FY 2025
|
FY 2026 President’s Request
|
Final FY 2026
|
FY 2026 vs
FY 2025
|
|
AHRQ
|
$369 million
|
$240 million
|
$345.4 million
|
-6.4%
|
|
BLS
|
$698 million
|
$648 million
|
$708.5 million
|
+0.6%
|
|
Census Bureau
|
$1.38 billion
|
$1.67 billion
|
$1.49 billion
|
+7.8%
|
|
IES
|
$793.1 million
|
$261.3 million
|
$789.6 million
|
-0.4%
|
|
NCHS
|
$187.4 million
|
$175 million
|
$187.4 million
|
0.0%
|
|
NIH
|
$47.1 billion
|
$27.9 billion
|
$47.2 billion
|
+0.9%
|
|
NSF
|
$9.06 billion
|
$3.903 billion
|
$8.75 billion
|
-3.4%
|
The PAA Government and Public Affairs Committee is very grateful for the role that PAA members played throughout the FY 2026 appropriations cycle. By responding to action alerts and participating in meetings with policymakers, especially during the 2025 PAA Advocacy Day, they helped avert what could have been a disastrous outcome for the federal scientific and statistical research agencies that directly and indirectly support the population sciences. PAA anticipates the FY 2027 appropriations process will face similar challenges and looks forward to facing them with a united front.
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