The upcoming U.S. midterm elections could change which political party controls Congress, which meets at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Credit: Finn Gomez/Getty
As tens of millions of Americans prepare to vote in the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, the result could reshape Washington’s approach to science. Republicans currently control both houses of Congress, but polling data supports Democrats taking back the House and suggests they could also gain control of the Senate. Such a shift could affect federal research funding, oversight of scientific agencies and the Trump administration’s plans to reorganize U.S. science.
Since President Trump took office last year, his administration has cut thousands of research grants, reduced the federal scientific workforce and called for unprecedented political oversight of agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Many researchers and science advocates hope a new Congress will protect science funding and investigate the administration’s actions.
“Republican Congresses have basically abdicated their oversight role for almost two years now,” said Shaughnessy Norton, president of 314 Action, a Washington, D.C.-based political fundraising group that is recruiting Democratic scientists, engineers and medical experts to run for office.
Funding battle
The Trump administration has proposed deep cuts to the federal science budget, including reducing the NSF’s budget by more than 50% in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who determine federal spending, have so far blocked those reductions. However, the budget for fiscal year 2027, which begins on October 1, has not yet been formally approved.
Even if Democrats, who generally support increased science spending, win majorities in both chambers, securing large funding increases could be difficult because the final budget would still require President Trump’s signature.
At a minimum, researchers and science advocates hope Congress will continue blocking deep budget cuts. But maintaining funding levels on paper has not prevented the administration from restricting research spending. Without congressional approval, the White House has used other methods to rein in spending, including ending active subsidies mid-cycle and withholding funds that Congress has already approved. This controversial practice is known as foreclosure.
Science advocates say they hope a new Congress will assert its budget authority and challenge those actions. The NSF ended fiscal year 2026 on September 30 with approximately $1.4 billion in unspent funds and the lowest number of new research grants in decades. The agency said the law gives it two years to spend the approved budget.
Matt Dull, a government-surveillance expert at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, said the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s investigative arm, has the power to determine whether funds have been improperly withheld. However, he said, the GAO rarely files lawsuits over such violations, although that could change after the midterm elections.
Congress could also challenge the administration’s reorganization of U.S. science by attaching conditions to spending bills. Lawmakers have not yet agreed on a final fiscal year 2027 budget, so they passed a stopgap bill that would fund the government only through December 11. The bill includes a provision that would temporarily block the White House’s plan to overhaul American science.
The plan is controversial because it would put political appointees in charge of reviewing federal grants, allowing them to override the decisions of scientific reviewers. Giving political appointees control over grants would threaten biomedical progress worldwide, said Ellie DeHaney, senior vice president of policy and advocacy at Research! America, a nonprofit organization in Arlington, Virginia.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which developed the plan, announced it as “Improving transparency, accountability, and oversight of federal funds.”
Rosa DeLauro, a Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut, issued a statement last month saying that she was confident Congress would continue blocking the OMB plan in future spending bills.
Enhanced monitoring
Although Congress does not run the country’s scientific agencies, it has oversight powers that include investigating the conduct of government departments and agencies. Most of those powers are controlled by the party that holds the majority in Congress. Democrats have promised to use them if they make significant gains in the midterm elections.
“We will continue the work we have done over the past two years to hold the Trump administration accountable,” said Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. “If we win, we will have more tools at our disposal to do just that.”
Lofgren and her Democratic colleagues have sent numerous letters to agencies including the NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy, seeking information about actions such as terminating subsidies. They have received almost no answers, she said. Lofgren, who represents a California district and could become chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee if Democrats take control, would have subpoena power to compel administration officials to testify before Congress.
Source: www.nature.com