The House and Senate Appropriations Committees jointly proposed legislation that would generally maintain funding levels for the Department of Education and increase the NIH budget by more than $400 million this fiscal year. It’s the latest in a bipartisan trend of congressional condemnation of President Trump’s calls for cuts to institutions that support higher education.
For this fiscal year, Trump is asking Congress to cut NIH by 40% and cut $12 billion from the ED budget. The president has proposed eliminating several ED programs, including TRIO, GEAR UP, and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, all of which help low-income students attend college. He also proposed reducing the budget of the Civil Rights Education Bureau by more than one-third.
But the proposed funding package released this week by senators and representatives maintains funding for all of those projects.
“We were surprised to see that funding levels for higher education programs actually increased in some respects and were maintained,” said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education. “We knew that in this political environment, equal funding would be seen as a win.”
This latest set of funding bills is the last that Congress must approve to avoid another government shutdown later this month. Democrats say passing an actual appropriations bill, rather than another continuing resolution, is key to ensuring federal agencies spend money as Congress requires.
Joanne Padrón Carney, chief government relations officer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Inside higher education NIH’s budget increases are essentially “flat funding” to account for inflation. But, she said, “this funding package once again demonstrates congressional, bipartisan support for R&D and the importance of these investments, and rejects deep government cuts.”
Earlier this month, Congress largely rejected Trump’s proposal to make sweeping cuts to three key funders of higher education research: the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy. These developments lead to more encouraging funding prospects for 2026 for research and projects supporting post-secondary students.
But Congress only has 10 days to pass this new financing package, and Trump still must sign both packages into law. The government shutdown will begin after January 30 for those agencies that do not approve funding legislation.
Guillory noted that despite the Justice Department’s declaration last month that institutional programs that serve minorities are illegal because they “actually [employ] Racial quotas are implemented by limiting institutional eligibility for schools with a specific racial composition”—programs that Congress still proposes to fund.
“Nearly every institutional program that serves minorities has received an increase in funding,” he said.
Appropriators also want to give about $790 million more to the Institute of Education Sciences, compared with the $261 million Trump requested. Last year, his government dismantled the federal government’s central education data collection and research funding agency, the IES. But, like the broader Department of Education, it continues to be required to exist by laws passed by Congress.
In addition to the grant numbers, proposed legislation to fund NIH would also prevent the federal government from capping the indirect research cost reimbursement rate for NIH grants at 15%, something the Trump administration has tried to do, but failed. Indirect cost reimbursement rates, which individual institutions have historically negotiated with the federal government, cover research costs that are difficult to attribute to any single item, such as laboratory costs and patient safety.
The Appropriations Committee issued an explanatory statement along with the legislation, saying “neither NIH nor any other department or agency may establish or implement any policy, guidance, or rule” that changes “the manner in which negotiated indirect cost rates are implemented and applied under NIH regulations as they become effective in the third quarter of fiscal year 2017.”
Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee did not indicate their opposition to the president in a press release about the proposal. Instead, they said the legislation reflects “the will of the American people, who are demanding new priorities and accountability from their government, including ‘Make America Healthy Again’ and ‘Make America Skilled Again’ priorities.”
“Invest in where it matters most: life-saving biomedical research and resilient medical supply chains, classrooms and training that prepare the next generation for success, and rural hospitals and primary care to end the chronic disease epidemic,” the release said.
Democrats claimed Congressional victory.
“The latest funding package continues Congress’s strong rejection of the Trump administration’s proposed deep cuts to federal programs,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a press release.
“When the White House tried to cancel the entire program, we chose to increase funding,” DeLauro said. “When the administration proposed resource cuts, we chose to maintain funding at current levels. While President Trump and Budget Director Russ Vought sought broad discretion over federal spending, Congress chose on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to reassert its fiscal authority.”
Carney said she thinks passage is “extremely likely.”
“On the surface, what they call the ‘four corners’ – the presidents and ranking members of both chambers and parties – have agreed on this package,” she said. So, barring “a last-minute surprise,” she said, “everything should go relatively smoothly.”
Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, urged other lawmakers to pass the legislation.
“At the time, many thought completing the fiscal year 2026 process was out of reach, but we have proven that challenges are opportunities,” Cole said in a statement. “It’s time to cross the finish line.”
