NASA FY 2027 Budget Rodeo

Keith’s note: The House Appropriations Committee (chaired by Republicans) has released its FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science bill which includes NASA, NSF, and NOAA [Summary] [Full Text] The bill asks for $24.4 billion for NASA. This amount is the almost exactly the same that NASA received in the enacted FY 2026 budget. Last year OMB submitted a FY 2026 Presidential Budget Request asking for $18.8 billion. That large gut was eventually reversed and increased to $24.4 billion – an amount mostly matching the amount NASA got for FY 2025. Apparently, not getting last year’s congressional message, OMB has asked for $18.8 billion for NASA in FY 2027. If last year was a feature – not a bug – then that OMB mark has a significant chance of being bumped upwards – again – perhaps to something close to the $24.4 billion. There is a mark-up hearing on this budget Thursday at 8:00 am EDT so we’ll see what’s likely to happen. Update: the committee approved its FY 2027 bill by a vote of 8 to 6. Republicans who were voting said ‘yes’ and all of Democrats voted against it.