Congress Set to Defer FY 2025 Appropriations

As the U.S. Congress and a new Administration work to finalize the fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations process, ASME joined with the Task Force on American Innovation, a broad coalition of businesses, trade groups, scientific and engineering societies, and university organizations, to encourage support for key federal science and engineering research agencies. With critical programs awaiting FY25 budget finalization, the potential for reduced or deferred funding could disrupt ongoing and future research initiatives essential to U.S. technological leadership and economic competitiveness. 

With the fiscal year already underway, lawmakers have relied on temporary continuing resolutions (CRs) to avoid a government shutdown. These stopgap measures maintain current funding levels but limit agencies' ability to initiate new programs or expand existing ones. The delay in finalizing budget affects several federal agencies critical to engineering research and development.  

With Congress now set to punt FY25 decisions into next year, the incoming Congress and Trump Administration will face a backlog of appropriations work to resolve before turning to broader tax and spending agenda items. But uncertainty over funding levels may slow the rollout of competitive grant programs and research initiatives in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and quantum computing, all technology leadership priorities for Congress and the Administration.   

“For decades, America has been the undisputed global leader in science, technology and innovation. But as you know, the global landscape is increasingly competitive. While U.S. federal investments in fundamental research have been relatively flat, our international counterparts have increased their investments in R&D, in many cases dramatically.” Task Force on American Innovation Letter to President-elect Trump 

Follow ASME’s Policy Impact Newsletter for further updates on congressional budget negotiations and their impact on the engineering research landscape. 

To read the full Task Force on American Innovation letter to President-elect Trump, visit: https://www.innovationtaskforce.org/letter-to-president-elect-trump-december-2024/