Department of Energy Office of Science

Rule Changes

Received $8.4B for FY2026, a 2% increase despite proposed cuts

For 80 years, federal science funding enjoyed bipartisan protection. President Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget proposed ending that consensus, calling for cuts of 57% to the National Science Foundation (NSF), 47% to NASA's science programs, and 40% to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Congress said no. On January 30, 2026, Trump signed a spending bill that preserves most science agency budgets—passed by votes of 397-28 in the House and 82-15 in the Senate.

Updated Jan 30

New Capabilities

Primary U.S. funder of superconductor research

Scientists just cracked a problem that's plagued superconductor research for decades: how to make these wonder materials work without crushing them under diamond-anvil pressures. In February 2025, teams at SLAC and Stanford stabilized nickelate superconductors at everyday pressure using substrate compression, while University of Houston researchers locked in a superconducting state using a rapid pressure-release technique. Both still require ultra-cold temperatures, but eliminating the pressure constraint opens the door to real experiments—and eventually, to lossless power grids and fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Updated Jan 7