1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

Block the White House's plan to redirect $500 million away from NSF's core science directorates. According to internal NSF documents reviewed by Nature, funds are being clawed back from the Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorates — forcing programme officers to rescind over 100 grants that had already cleared peer review. Researchers were told they had funding. Now they don't. Congress set the NSF's 2026 budget at $8.75 billion and explicitly directed the agency to distribute funding equitably, with no directorate cut by more than 5%. These clawbacks blow past that threshold — most affected directorates are looking at cuts exceeding 30% against their planned 2025 spending. That's not a budget adjustment; it's a dismantling of the peer-review system that makes American science credible. The only directorate getting a boost is the Technology, Innovation and Partnerships office, which stands to gain 30% — a clear signal that this is a political reallocation, not a fiscal one. The NSF exists to fund science on merit, not White House priority lists. I want you to demand full transparency on where these funds are going, push for the release of the nearly $1 billion withheld from directorates since April, and hold the administration accountable for defying Congressional intent.