Although members of the US House of Representatives have passed spending bills, Nature News notes that the Senate has not, leaving funding for sciences agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for the next fiscal year up in the air.
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration unveiled its 2020 budget request, dubbed A Budget for a Better America, which included a 12 percent funding cut for the NIH. That, as GenomeWeb noted then, was the third time the Administration has called for cutting the NIH budget, but that each time, Congress has resisted those budget decreases. In April, Democrats in the House of Representatives instead proposed adding $2 billion to the agency's budget for the next fiscal year.
In July, Congressional lawmakers reached a two-year budget agreement with the Trump Administration that would increase spending for civilian agencies. As Nature News notes, this agreement could smooth the way for science funding. But it adds that much is still uncertain, especially as lawmakers only have a few weeks to pass a spending bill since the fiscal year ends at the end of September.