Partnership for Public Service Tracks Federal Science Funding Cuts

The Partnership for Public Service launched an interactive tool titled The Cost of Cutting American Science to document the impact of sweeping funding and workforce reductions implemented by the current U.S. administration. The tool provides a data-driven look at budget decreases, including a 78.9% drop in environmental research and innovation project grants, a 49.4% decrease in public health and disease prevention R&D contracts, and a 27.4% reduction for national parks and public lands agencies.

Further data indicates that NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology each experienced a 23.4% decrease in funding for scientific discovery and technological innovation. These figures are part of a broader Federal Harms Tracker suite designed to illustrate the risks associated with government workforce reductions and the financial costs of government shutdowns occurring in 2025 and 2026.

Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, stated that these indiscriminate cuts unravel decades of scientific achievement and threaten the position of the United States as a leading global innovator.