The House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the text of their joint conference agreement on the FY2026 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill today with a wholesale rejection of the dire cuts to NASA proposed by the Trump Administration. The committees had individually indicated they would not accept Trump’s 24.3 percent cut and the joint agreement calls for only a comparatively small reduction of $400 million from NASA’s $24.8 billion FY2025 budget in appropriations. NASA also was allocated substantial FY2026 money through the reconciliation bill, making the outcome — if enacted — a vast improvement over what the agency was facing a few months ago.
The House Appropriations Committee combined the CJS bill with Energy-Water and Interior-Environment into a three-bill “minibus.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on X that it will be taken up by the House this week.
If it passes, it would then go to the Senate, which has been working on a different minibus that combines five bills: CJS, Defense, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS, and Transportation-HUD. Those bipartisan efforts stalled just before the holiday recess when the Trump Administration announced it would break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, losing support from some Democrats. NCAR is overseen by the National Science Foundation, which is part of the CJS bill.
For NASA, the $24.438 billion is undoubtedly a great relief. It’s a cut of only $400 million from the $24.838 billion the agency received in FY2025 and also demonstrates continued bipartisan support for NASA’s activities. The Trump Administration’s proposal spared only the Moon-to-Mars program. The Science and Space Technology portfolios were to be cut by about 50 percent each, Aeronautics by about one-third, and Space Operations (including the International Space Station) by more than 25 percent.
Instead, the conference report or “joint explanatory statement” supports NASA’s programs across the board.
The numbers are not always apples-to-apples comparisons since the conference report moves two programs into Exploration: Space Technology’s nuclear thermal and nuclear electric programs totalling up to $170 million, and Science’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative with not less than $250 million including up to $65 million provided in the Planetary Science account.
Also, some money was provided through the reconciliation bill — the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act, OBBBA. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) led the effort to include $10 billion for NASA spread over several years. The portion for FY2026 is reflected in this bill. For example, Cruz added $4.1 billion for the Space Launch System: $1.025 billion per year for four years (FY2026-FY2029). Funding for Orion ($20 million in FY2026), the Gateway lunar space station ($750 million per year for three years starting in FY2026) and a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter ($700 million in FY2026) was also included in the OBBBA. That’s on top of what’s in this appropriations bill.
The conference report provides this breakdown for how money is allocated in the Exploration account.
The figures called out in the table are those the committees want to highlight. The numbers in the first column don’t match the total at the bottom ($6,564,400 versus $7,783,000) because the remainder ($1,219,600) is for everything else in the Exploration account like the $250 million for Fission Surface Power (and remember that the numbers are expressed in thousands so it’s actually $7.783 billion for example). The figures in the second column ($2.845 billion) are what was provided for Exploration for FY2026 in the reconciliation bill and are in addition to what’s in the appropriations bill.
Similarly, the OBBBA designates $250 million per year for five years (FY2025-2029) for the International Space Station. The conference report provides $1.240 billion for the ISS in FY2026 with the $250 million from the OBBBA raising the total available in FY2026 to $1.490 billion.
The conference report makes no mention of the OBBBA’s direction that NASA move “a space vehicle” that has flown humans to space to a NASA Center involved in the Commercial Crew Program. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has legislation directing that the Space Shuttle Discovery be moved from the National Air and Space Museum to Johnson Space Center, but the OBBBA is not that explicit. It provides $85 million for the transfer, but only $5 million is to move the vehicle. The remainder is for the non-profit institution that will house it to build an appropriate facility. The cost to move Discovery from the outskirts of Washington, DC to Houston is expected to greatly exceed $5 million, which would require appropriated funds. At the end of a recent interview on CNBC, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman left open the question of whether it would be a space shuttle because cost and the safety of the vehicle must be taken into account, not to mention that with Artemis flights around the Moon about to commence, more historic spacecraft will soon be available.
The OBBBA also provided $325 million for the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) being built by SpaceX to deorbit the International Space Station, with no year specified for spending it. The conference report doesn’t mention USDV.
Among other highlights, the conference report —
- Provides $110 million for Landsat Next with a target launch date of 2031 for the first satellite to ensure continuity of the Landsat data record.
- Provides $110 million for “Mars Future Missions,” but not for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission specifically. MSR became controversial because of substantial cost growth. Senate appropriators were silent on MSR this year, but began expressing their dissatisfaction in 2023. House appropriators threw the program a lifeline in their markup this year, but the $300 million was not included today. The conference report does acknowledge the importance of the technological capabilities being developed in the MSR program and supports existing MSR efforts in “radar, spectroscopy, entry, descent and landing systems, and translational precursor technologies that will enable science missions for the next decade, including lunar and Mars missions.”
- Rejects the proposed termination of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis program and states that money cannot be reallocated from the Artemis Moon to Mars Transportation account “unless and until a commercial alternative is demonstrated to meet or exceed the capabilities of SLS/Orion.”
- Provides $250 million for Fission Surface Power. The Trump Administration wants to put a reactor on the surface of the Moon by 2030 to support human exploration.
- Provides $273 million for the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program to ensure at least one commercial space station is available by the time the ISS is retired.
- Rejects the proposed elimination of NASA’s STEM Engagement activities, with funding maintained at $143 million ($58 million for Space Grant, $26 million for EPSCoR, $45.5 million for MUREP, and $13.5 million for Next Generation STEM).
- Requires a briefing on the future of NASA Headquarters.
- Expresses concern about “potential negative impacts” from what NASA is doing at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD and directs NASA to preserve “all the technical and scientific world-class capabilities” there. NASA must contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study on what’s needed for long term success of NASA missions that rely on Goddard.
The text of the bill and conference report focus on topics of special concern to the appropriations committees, but does not negate what each of them wrote in their own reports unless specifically stated.
As with Exploration, the science table lists only the programs the committees want to highlight. They are not the only programs funded, which is why the sum of the programs under each category don’t match the subtotals. The Senate report approved $300 million for NEO Surveyor, for example, while the House report allowed $266.3 million. The table shows the Senate position prevailed. The House report provided $300 million for Mars Sample Return, the Senate report was silent on MSR but recommended $110 million for Mars Future Missions. The table shows that once again the Senate position was adopted.
The Administration’s proposed 47 percent cut to NASA’s Science budget — from $7.334 billion in FY2025 to $3.908 billion in FY2026 — created considerable concern. The Senate report kept the total at $7.3 billion while the House lowered it to $6 billion while adding money to Exploration. With the addition of the reconciliation dollars, the total for Exploration could increase without taking anything away from Science so the $7.3 billion was adopted.
The Planetary Society led a coalition of 20 organizations to advocate for NASA’s Science budget. TPS’s Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier told SpacePolicyOnline.com that the final bill “further demonstrates Congress’ resolve to maintain leadership in space and science” and “fully rejects the draconian and self-destructive cuts proposed by the Administration to NASA’s scientific, education, and technological development activities.”
He hopes the FY2027 budget request will move “beyond budget cutting as policy” and lead to the White House working with Congress on a bipartisan basis “to enable NASA’s success in space science, outreach, human exploration, and technological leadership across the solar system. The universe is much bigger than the Moon, and Congress knows it.”
Overall, the agreement represents mostly a status quo for NASA. President Trump’s early embrace of Elon Musk’s enthusiasm to send people to Mars seems to have faded along with their close relationship and perhaps a recognition of the hurdles involved in doing that, while the drumbeat of getting Americans back on the Moon before Chinese taikonauts arrives takes center stage with the Artemis program. The SLS rocket has solid support despite the Administration’s efforts to end it after the Artemis III lunar landing mission. SLS was created by the 2010 NASA Authorization Act and has enjoyed unwavering support in Congress ever since. NASA’s science, aeronautics, and space technology programs as well as the International Space Station also have long-standing congressional support.
Agreement between the House and Senate committees is an important step, but only a step. It now must pass the House and Senate, which is not guaranteed especially at a time when partisan divisions are high following President Trump’s military action in Venezuela over the weekend.
Still, although the House appropriations process has become more partisan in recent years, both the Republican and Democratic committee leaders expressed support for this minibus, a hopeful sign in the House at least.
If this minibus clears Congress and is signed into law by the President, six of the 12 FY2026 bills will be enacted. Three cleared in November (Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and MilCon-VA) when the current Continuing Resolution passed, ending the 43-day shutdown. Among those still awaiting passage will be the Defense bill and Transportation-HUD, which funds the FAA and its Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
This article has been updated.