Congress Passes FY2026 Spending Bill, Rejects Proposed 40% NIH Cut
March 22, 2026 · 2 min read
David Almeida
Congress has approved the FY2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, delivering a bipartisan rebuke to the administration's proposed deep cuts to biomedical research and higher education funding.
The final package allocates $48.7 billion in discretionary funding to the National Institutes of Health — a $415 million increase over FY2025 and a decisive rejection of the White House's proposal to slash NIH funding by roughly 40 percent.
What Researchers and Institutions Get
The Department of Education received $79.0 billion in discretionary funding, a $217 million increase over FY2025 and approximately $12 billion above the administration's request. The maximum Pell Grant award holds at $7,395 for the 2026–2027 academic year, blocking a proposed cut of more than $1,000 per student.
Programs supporting minority-serving institutions — including HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges — received across-the-board funding increases through Title III and Title V. Congress also preserved TRIO, GEAR UP, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, all of which the administration had targeted for elimination.
The Institute of Education Sciences secured $790 million, tripling the administration's $261 million request. The Office for Civil Rights maintained its $140 million budget despite a proposed $49 million reduction.
Indirect Cost Rates Remain Protected
The bill continues to block the administration's proposed 15 percent cap on NIH indirect cost reimbursement rates — a provision that had alarmed research universities, which rely on negotiated rates to cover laboratory overhead, compliance costs, and infrastructure. Additional report language extends this protection to all HHS research agencies.
Why Grant Seekers Should Act Now
With the funding pipeline now settled, researchers should treat these appropriations as a green light to prepare and submit proposals. NIH's $48.7 billion budget and the protected indirect cost rates signal that award counts will hold near historical levels for FY2026.
Grant seekers tracking federal funding developments can find deeper analysis of these appropriations and their downstream effects on the Granted blog.