Spending deal comes with a bonus: Blocking political control of grants
Congress pauses the OMB's attempt to rewrite how research is funded.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved a short-term funding bill to keep the US government operational until early December. The legislation, which still needs President Trump's approval, is anticipated to be signed by him to prevent a shutdown just before the midterm elections. This is a routine practice for the US government, given the challenges in garnering sufficient political backing to pass a full-year budget ahead of time.
In this instance, internal disagreements within the Republican caucus within the House prevented them from reaching a consensus on their own funding proposal. Consequently, the House simply adopted a version of the spending bill that had already been passed by the Senate.
From a scientific standpoint and the perspective of its advocates, this adoption proved advantageous. The Senate's budget bill, enacted in early August, included a clause that prevents the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from enforcing new regulations granting political appointees exclusive authority over scientific funding and enabling them to revoke any grant at any moment.
This proposed rule has been widely criticized as detrimental to scientific pursuits and met with strong resistance from scientific and health-oriented organizations.
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