Appropriations Update: Congress Releases FY 2026 Appropriations Minibus Package for CJS, E&W, and Interior

January 6, 2026
Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC

On January 5, Congress released a bipartisan, bicameral legislative package that would provide final fiscal year (FY) 2026 funding levels and spending directives for agencies funded through the annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS); Energy and Water Development (E&W); and Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (Interior) Appropriations Acts. The package, also known as a minibus, would provide a total of $174.6 billion in discretionary funding across all three appropriations acts, and among other directives, includes language within the CJS and E&W divisions that would sustain existing facilitates and administrative (F&A) negotiated rates for research institutions for the remainder of FY 2026. This minibus is expected to be voted on and approved by the full House on Thursday, January 8, with consideration by the full Senate in the days following passage in the House.

Should this new CJS-E&W-Interior minibus be signed into law, it would mark the completion of a total of six of the twelve FY 2026 appropriations bills, following on the passage of a previous FY 2026 minibus that included the Legislative Branch, Military Construction-VA, and Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Acts this past November. Congress will look to chip away at additional appropriations measures before current government funding is set to expire on January 30. Pending additional congressional action, please find high-level funding information on key agencies covered in this new minibus legislation below. A more fulsome analysis by Lewis-Burke is forthcoming.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

  • NSF would be funded at $8.75 billion in FY 2026, a decrease of 3.4 percent below the FY 2025 funding level but 124.2 percent above the President’s budget request. This amount would include $7.18 billion for NSF Research and Related Activities, essentially flat with the FY 2025 level.
  • NSF would be instructed to equitably fund all research directorates and the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships.
  • The legislation would continue to support the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) as a separate account, but would cut funding substantially to $938.25 billion, a reduction of 20 percent below the FY 2025 level.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

  • NIST would be funded at $1.85 billion in FY 2026, an increase of 26.5 percent above the FY 2025 funding level and 122 percent above the President’s budget request.
  • The bill would fund the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program and Manufacturing USA programs at FY 2025 levels of $175 million and $37 million, respectively. Notably, the President's budget request proposed eliminating MEP entirely.
  • The bill includes $10 million to further the efforts of the NIST Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) to advance AI research.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

  • NOAA would be funded at $6.17 billion, a minor decrease of $11.5 million or 0.19 percent below the FY 2025 funding level. This funding level would also be 37.1 percent or $1.67 billion above the steep cuts proposed in the President’s budget request.

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

  • USGS would be funded at $1.42 billion in FY 2026, a decrease of $29.8 million or 2.05 percent below the FY 2025 funding level. This funding level would also be 59.3 percent or $528.9 million above the steep cuts proposed in the President’s budget request.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

  • NASA would be funded at $24.4 billion in FY 2026, representing a slight decrease below the FY 2025 funding level and a $5.63 billion increase above the President’s budget request.
  • As part of the total agency funding level, the bill would also reject the President’s requested cuts of 47 percent to NASA Science, and would instead provide $7.25 billion, which would be relatively flat compared to the FY 2025 level.
  • NASA Exploration would receive a slight funding increase in FY 2026, NASA Space Technology would be reduced by 16 percent, and NASA Aeronautics would remain flat funded.

U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA)

  • EDA would be funded at $466 million in FY 2026, just a $2 million decrease below the FY 2025 funding level and a decisive rejection of the President’s budget request to provide $30 million to close the agency over several years.
  • The bill would also provide $41 million for Tech Hubs, the same as the previous year’s baseline appropriations amount, and $50 million for Build to Scale, which would also be flat.
  • $10 million would be provided in FY 2026 for a new Workforce Training Grant program.

Department of Energy (DOE)

  • DOE would be funded at $49.12 billion in FY 2026, a decrease of $1 billion below the FY 2025 funding level but almost $3 billion above the President’s budget request. The bill would also provide up to $3 million for the Arctic Energy Office.
  • As part of the total funding level, DOE Office of Science would be funded at $8.4 billion in FY 2026, representing a slight increase above the FY 2025 enacted level. The final FY 2026 DOE Office of Science appropriation would include increases for Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Biological and Environmental Research (BER), High Energy Physics (HEP), and Nuclear Physics (NP).
  • Congress would reject the Administration's proposed cut to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (EERE), which would be flat funded at $3.1 billion with $1.95 billion in new funding and $1.15 billion reprogramed from cancelled infrastructure bill funding. However, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstration would be disbanded and project funding redistributed.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • EPA would be funded at $8.8 billion in FY 2026, a decrease of $319.8 million or 3.5 percent below the FY 2025 funding level. The Science and Technology (S&T) Account, which supports most EPA-funded research, would be funded at $744.2 million, a decrease of $11.9 million or 1.6 percent below the FY 2025 level. 

Superfund Research Program

  • The minibus would provide $77.1 million for the Superfund Research Program administered by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in FY 2026, a decrease of $2.6 million compared to the FY 2025 funding level. All other appropriations for NIEHS and other programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) fall under the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, which Congress has yet to reconcile for FY 2026.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

  • The minibus would provide $207 million each for NEH and NEA in FY 2026, level with the FY 2025 funding level. This is a rejection of the President’s budget request which proposed the phased elimination of the Endowments.  

Sources and additional information:

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