Senate expands federal science funding beyond White House cuts

The U.S. Senate approved a bill boosting funding for federal science agencies, surpassing White House requests by preserving a large NSF allocation of $8.75 billion to back about 10,000 new awards and more than 250,000 scientists and teachers. NASA funding is largely kept with a modest reduction from the White House plan (about $24.44 billion total), and astrophysics gets $1.6 billion, including $300 million to finish a dark-energy telescope and $500 million for the Dragonfly mission to Titan. The bill was framed as bipartisan support for science, though critics question NSF oversight and the public return on such spending.