House Of Representatives Passes FY26 Funding for NASA, Army Corps, EPA, NOAA, And Immigration Courts, Rejects Trump Administration’s Extreme Budget Cuts
On Thursday, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a “minibus” legislative package that includes three Fiscal Year 2026 funding bills that reject the extreme cuts in the Trump Administration's budget. The bill is accompanied by directions to federal agencies in the “joint explanatory statement” that reflects several IFPTE priorities. IFPTE sent a letter supporting the passage of the minibus and noted that the bill includes “funding that drives American leadership in science and innovation, protects public health and the environment, supports commercial industries and our food supply, and builds and maintains water resources and infrastructure.” The House vote tally for the bill was 397 to 28.
IFPTE’s letter also noted that, while lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are rejecting the Trump Administration and the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) budget request, “the flat funding levels over the last two fiscal years, combined with the decrease in funding for several agencies in this minibus, must be corrected in upcoming appropriations cycles. Many agencies have seen critical programs and missions starved of resources over the last several years and, in recent months, have experienced a massive loss of institutional knowledge and technical expertise, chaotic mismanagement, and the resulting demoralized workforce, terminations of qualified probationary employees, and the Administration’s effort to push dedicated civil servants to leave the federal workforce.”
The letter highlights some of the key provisions that IFPTE weighed in with Congress on:
“The bill cuts NASA’s FY26 spending level by 1.6% and NASA Science by 3.9% over the previous year, but avoids the Administration’s request to defund the agency budget by 24.4% and dismantle the NASA Science budget through a 47% reduction.”
Language in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the bill directs NASA to “fund key projects, ‘preserve all the technical and scientific world-class capabilities at Goddard Space Flight Center’, and ‘ensure that Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) employees can continue work with minimal disruption’ as they advance NASA’s world-leading Earth System Modeling efforts.”
The bill increases “funding for NOAA Fisheries surveys, allocating resources to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, supporting the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, and other NOAA priority programs.”
“[P]rovides the USACE with $1.75 billion above FY25 spending levels and “provides the USACE Operation and Maintenance program with $6 billion, which is an 8.1% increase over FY25 spending levels.”
“[P]rovides $8.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is 3.6% below FY25 spending levels, but avoids steep cuts sought by the Administration that would have harmed environmental safety and public health, as well as economic competitiveness and innovation.”
IFPTE will continue to work towards passage of this minibus in the Senate as well as the remaining six appropriations bills (Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations, Transportation-HUD, Labor-HHS) before the end of January 30, which is the date that current funding expires for agencies funded under the last short-term Continuing Resolution.