The President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget was released on Friday, May 2, and lists a number of budget cuts, while increasing spending for defense and border security. Further evaluation of the impact of the proposed budget will be made in the coming days. The details of the budget may be found on the White House website.
The White House statement notes: “The Budget, which reduces non-defense discretionary [spending] by $163 billion or 23 percent from the 2025 enacted level, guts a weaponized deep state while providing historic increases for defense and border security. The Budget also provides support for air and rail safety as well as key infrastructure and our Nation’s veterans and law enforcement.
“This is the lowest non-defense spending level since 2017. Savings come from eliminating radical diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory programs, Green New Scam funding, large swaths of the Federal Government weaponized against the American people, and moving programs that are better suited for States and localities to provide.”
“The requested cuts to NASA are from about $24.8 billion in FY25 to $18.8 billion in FY26. The agency was hoping for a funding increase to get a number of programs back on track following two years of what amounted to spending cuts due to budgets being held at FY24 spending levels,” reported Spaceflight Now.
The cuts include the Mars Sample Return mission, which the White House said is “grossly over budget and whose goals would be achieved by human missions to Mars.”
