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May 08, 2025

Science Committee Members Demand Answers from NSF on Award Terminations and Reckless Policy Actions

(Washington, DC) – Today, Members of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology sent a letter to Brian Stone, Acting Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). In the letter, the Members detail the turmoil that has taken place at NSF since the Trump administration began, including the termination of awards that total over one billion dollars. The Members demand answers on how decisions are being made at NSF and call into question the legality of the actions the Trump administration has taken at the agency. 

“Within 24 hours, from May 1 to May 2, 2025, NSF crossed the billion-dollar mark of terminated awards, froze all funding actions with no indication of duration, and announced the implementation of a 15% cap on indirect costs for new awards,” the Members wrote in the letter. “Mere months ago, each of these individual decisions would have been an unprecedented shock. Today, President Trump has made this chaos and destruction commonplace. However, we refuse to accept this as our new reality, and we demand answers on how these decisions are being made at NSF.”

The Members continued, “The accusation that these terminated awards lack merit is a lie, as most, if not all these awards, carry a statement from the agency declaring that ‘This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.’ The cancelation of these awards suggests instead that NSF is willing to apply political censorship of awards under direction from President Trump and the DOGE teenagers, which is a clear violation of the statutory mission of the agency. Taking inspiration from Senator Ted Cruz’s approach to merit-review is nothing to crow about.”

As the Members closed the letter, they wrote, “So, who is in charge here? How far does DOGE’s influence reach? How much is OMB dictating based on hard-right political ideology and not scientific or research expertise? The Science Committee has repeatedly requested transparency and accountability from NSF. This has rarely been provided. Yet again, we seek answers about actions NSF has taken that potentially break the law and certainly break the trust of the research community. Yet again, we implore NSF to stand up for its mission as it is under siege by anti-science politicians and uninformed DOGE hackers.”

The letter can be found here.

The letter was signed by Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC), Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR), Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), Rep. Luz Rivas (D-CA), Rep. Sarah McBride (DE At Large), Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA), Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA), and Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-MD).