The U.S. Debt-Ceiling Crisis Could Harm Science for Years to Come

legislation authorizing a massive increase in federal spending on science and innovation, including a doubling of the NSF’s budget through 2027. That legislation, called the CHIPS and Science Act, drew bipartisan support owing to rising concern about economic and scientific competition with China. “We’re still in a place where we can’t seem to back up our rhetoric with the kind of investments that we hoped for,” Hourihan says.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are still working through the usual appropriations process for the fiscal year 2024, with Republicans seeking to reduce federal spending to levels enacted in 2022. If those cuts were spread evenly across all discretionary programmes, federal science investments would drop by 20–22% in 2024, according to FASEB.

One possibility is that Republicans and Biden reach a deal to increase the debt ceiling without resolving questions about 2024 spending levels. In such a scenario, the fallback position for both parties later this year could be a continuing resolution that holds 2024 funding flat at 2023 levels, Zeitzer says.

“That’s still better than direct cuts, but it’s not great for the research enterprise,” Zeitzer says. “We’re holding our breath.”

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on May 22, 2023.