Policy News Headlines

 

Executive Branch

September 18, 2026

• White House budget chief pushes for scrutiny of NIH grants in Oval Office clash — Washington Post

September 4, 2026

• Trump moves to allow ranchers and hunters to kill gray wolves — Washington Post

August 27, 2026

• Trump administration proposes changes to Biden-era climate report — The Hill

July 23, 2026

• White House Science Report Calls For Reducing University Research Funding — Forbes

July 20, 2026

• Trump demands review of scientific manual used by federal judges — Courthouse News Service
• Did 500,000 people comment on controversial U.S. grantmaking rule? Not likely, analysts say — Science

July 17, 2026

• US judge says Trump administration cannot revoke grants that conflict with its priorities — Reuters

July 16, 2026

• Trump administration’s new rule will limit foreign students to four-year stays — Washington Post

July 13, 2026

• President Trump drastically shrinks 2 Utah national monuments — again — Salt Lake Tribune

July 10, 2026

• Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee Flagship Report — New York Times

Congress

September 1, 2026

• House passes bill to avert a government shutdown ahead of midterm elections — Washington Post

August 3, 2026

• Spending bill blocks Trump plan to politicize grants — The Hill

June 30, 2026

• Democrats spar with Vought over USAID cuts, federal grants in tense hearing — The Hill

June 15, 2026

• Lawmakers fight to stop administration dismantling $386M ocean observatory project — ABC News

June 4, 2026

• House passes agriculture and FDA appropriations bill — The Hill

May 20, 2026

• ‘Practical stewardship’: House Republicans release Interior-EPA spending bill — E&E News from Politico

May 14, 2026

• House panel OKs funding bill with NOAA, science cuts — E&E News from Politico

Federal Agencies

September 17, 2026

• Trump administration reduces protections for endangered species again — The Hill

September 11, 2026

• NSF moves to overhaul funding approach in line with White House priorities — Nature
• Science Agencies Pull ‘Political Interference’ Protections From Scientific Integrity Policies — FYI from AIP

September 4, 2026

• EPA, Army Corps seek more input for federal water regulation in US — Reuters

September 3, 2026

• US Forest Service closing 23 research facilities as part of reorganization under Trump — Associated Press

August 26, 2026

• NSF shrinks support for social sciences in prestigious graduate fellowship program — Science

August 25, 2026

• DHS Immigration Rule Proposes A $103,265 Tax On New H-1B Visa Holders — Forbes

August 20, 2026

• Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades — Nature
• Environmental group sues Trump administration over plan to dismantle Boulder’s NCAR — Boulder Reporting Lab

August 19, 2026

• Is NSF’s new call for research proposals good news? Scientists and staffers have doubts — Science
• USGS chief scientist reassigned by Trump administration — E&E News from Politico

August 18, 2026

• Pentagon orders audit of 30 universities’ partnerships with foreign institutions
  — AP

August 17, 2026

• Justice Department calls three NSF diversity programs unconstitutional
  — Science

August 11, 2026

• Trump Administration Kills a Flagship Annual Report on the Arctic
  — New York Times

July 24, 2026

• NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes — Science

July 15, 2026

• NSF Names, Funds 12 New University-Led Regional Innovation Engines — Forbes

July 10, 2026

• New NSF policy would ban almost all collaborations with Chinese scientists — Science
• NSF makes billion-dollar gamble on research with an economic payoff — Science

July 2, 2026

• USDA expects ‘significant number’ of staff facing relocation to leave their jobs — Federal News Network

Scientific Community

August 27, 2026

• Canada Hires 48 Scholars Away From Top U.S. Universities — New York Times

August 26, 2026

• New Student Visas Dropped 23% in 2025 — Inside Higher Ed

July 6, 2026

• Decline of Ph.D. Admissions Could Imperil a ‘Generation of New Talent’ — New York Times

July 5, 2026

• China cools on overseas publication of scientific research — Financial Times

June 23, 2026

• Former NOAA Employees Revive Climate Site Shut by Trump Administration — New York Times

June 2, 2026

• U.S. science must innovate or die, National Academy of Sciences president says — Scientific American

Informational Resources

Information

• List of Federal Staff Firings (from Government Executive)
• NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders
• Latest Memos from the Office of Personnel Management
• Akin Executive Order Tracker
• Just Security’s Litigation Tracker
• American Institute of Physics’ FYI Science Policy News & Analysis
• American Institute of Physics’ Primer on the Government Shutdown
• AAAS Analysis: Impacts of Federal Shutdowns
• Timeline of Administration Actions (from AGU’s Eos)
• EJToday Daily Digest of Environment/Energy News
• UC San Diego Library’s U.S. Government Information: Weekly Roundup
• NASEM & Congressional R&D Caucus webinar: Aligning Talent, Research, and Innovation: A Cross-Sector Approach to Strengthening America’s Research Enterprise
• OPT Observatory — data & analysis on international students in the US workforce

Take Action

• ESA Action Alert
• ESA Policy Toolkit
• Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s (FASEB) Science Policy & Advocacy Resources
• Watch a recording of ESA’s “Communicating with Congress” webinar
• Share your story with ESA of how recent events are impacting you
• Democrats on the House Science Committee want to hear from fired federal employees and individuals whose grants have been canceled
• Get in touch with the American Institute of Physics’ FYI science policy news team about layoffs at federal science agencies
• Get in touch with Nature’s News team to share your story
• Share how funding cuts are affecting your research with the New York Times (scroll to the questionnaire at the end of this article)
• Tipline for feds experiencing political interference in science (from HEATED & SciLight)
• Learn more about a multi-organization effort to share scientists’ stories on recent policy impacts
• The Scientist Network for Advancing Policy (SNAP) is a peer network for sharing resources and communicating with the public and policymakers

Get Help

• Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) resources
• Environmental Protection Network’s resources for federal grantees
• Lawyers for Good Government’s Fund Protection Clinic for federal grantees
• Environmental Protection Network’s resources for federal employees
• Civil Service Strong
• Alden Law Group’s archive of Executive Orders & OPM statements regarding federal workers
• These groups may be working on Class Action Lawsuits for fired federal employees (ESA does not verify or endorse these groups and is sharing for informational purposes only): Alden Law Group, Democracy Forward
• Engineers & Scientists Acting Locally webinar on Oct. 2: “Imagining Scientific Futures: Opportunities & Hope in Difficult Times”

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This page is produced by the Public Affairs Office of the Ecological Society of America. ESA’s policy activities work to infuse ecological knowledge into national policy decisions through activities such as policy statements, Capitol Hill briefings, Congressional Visits Days and coalition involvement.

Send questions or comments to Alison Mize, Director of Public Affairs, or Mayda Nathan, Public Affairs Manager.

Visit the ESA website to learn more about our activities and membership.