The White House Fiscal Year 2026 discretionary budget proposal outlines a significant shift in federal spending priorities, proposing substantial reductions in innovation and non-defense discretionary funding, which, if enacted by Congress, would impact scientific research and regional economic development support across numerous federal agencies.
The Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health receive an increase of $301 million in budget authority for a new total of $47.216 billion in FY 2026, a figure that stands in sharp contradiction to the severe cuts recommended in the Administration’s request. Additionally, ARPA-H is to receive $1.5 billion.
The Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill for FY 2026 passed the House of Representatives yesterday and now moves to the Senate where passage is also expected. The bill sets spending levels for several agencies supporting regional innovation, economic development, and investment. Foremost are the Treasury and Small Business Administration; selected highlights are provided below.
House and Senate subcommittees with oversight for Commerce, State and Justice appropriations differ on funding recommendations for the EDA Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program, commonly referred to as Tech Hubs. While any funding in a tight budget environment is good, the $50 million in the House version of the CJS bill or the Senate subcommittee’s $60 million is far short of Congress’s original vision for the Tech Hubs, authorized at $10 billion over ten years.
The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) subcommittee of House Appropriations has turned against the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership in its budget recommendations for the Small Business Administration, zeroing out the only program that provides funds to help states level the competitive field of applicants for the SBIR/STTR program. While the FAST funds were decreased from the $9 million enacted in FY2024, the SBDC line item received a $10 million increase in the FSGG appropriations proposal.
The nearly status quo nature of the FY 2026 budget of $9.0 billion for the National Science Foundation advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee stands in striking contrast to the Administration’s $3.9 billion request. House appropriations, meanwhile, appropriated $7.0 billion for NSF, a reduction of $2.06 billion or 23% from the FY 2025 enacted level.
In perhaps the most difficult budget season of the last 25 years, where the President’s budget has proposed eliminating funding for scores of programs, both the House and Senate subcommittees with budget oversight for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) have proposed continuation funding of $50 million for FY2026 for the popular Build 2 Scale (B2S) program—referred to as the Regional Innovation Program Grants in budget language.