A group of prominent Republican lawmakers has expressed deep concerns over the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts for NASA’s science programs. The White House Office of Management and Budget recently sent a “passback” proposal to NASA leadership, seeking a 20% cut overall. However, the deepest cuts were targeted at the agency’s science division.
The proposed reductions include a two-thirds cut to astrophysics, down to $487 million; nearly 50% to heliophysics, down to $455 million; and greater than 50% to Earth science, down to $1.033 billion. In contrast, planetary science would see a 30% reduction, down to $1.929 billion.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former House Chair Robert Walker, and Charles Miller, head of the landing team for NASA’s Trump-Vance transition team, wrote an op-ed expressing their dismay over the proposed cuts. They argued that deep cuts to world-class science programs would undermine America’s leadership in space science, sending a signal to the world and future generations that the US is a declining power.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/republican-space-officials-criticize-mindless-nasa-science-cuts