In very broad strokes, the latest “budget news” is that governments are trying to finalise their spending plans for the 2026 fiscal year, with political fights focused on how much to cut or protect major programmes like science, defence, and social spending. In the United States specifically, Congress has started pushing back against some of President Trump’s proposed cuts, especially for science agencies, and is instead moving toward slightly higher or at least stable funding in several key areas.

Quick Scoop

  • The US Congress is working through the 2026 appropriations (spending) bills and has agreed on headline (“topline”) numbers for most major areas of federal spending, even though final bills are not all passed yet.
  • For science and space, lawmakers of both parties have rejected some of the deepest cuts proposed by the White House and are instead proposing more money or maintaining current levels for agencies like NASA and parts of the research budget.
  • Overall, the push-and-pull in the budget is between calls for austerity (lower spending and slower growth) and concern in Congress about harming research, infrastructure, and other long‑term priorities if cuts go too far.

What actually changed?

  • NASA’s proposed funding for FY2026 is about 24.4 billion dollars, which is higher than last year and significantly above the White House request that would have cut the agency below 22 billion.
  • The spending framework for the wider federal budget aims to keep growth in “discretionary” spending (things Congress decides yearly, like many domestic programmes) very modest, around 1% a year, after the end of stricter caps that applied in earlier years.
  • Within that tight overall envelope, Congress is trying to shield science, some infrastructure, and key security accounts from the most severe reductions.

Why people are talking about it now

  • The new fiscal year started in October, but full-year funding is still being hammered out, so any big moves in the budget negotiations quickly become headline and forum discussion material.
  • The contrast between the White House’s push for sharper cuts and Congress’s more moderate approach has turned the budget into a political story about priorities: science and space versus immediate deficit reduction.
  • Because this is happening at the start of 2026, commentators are also framing it as an early signal of how the Trump administration and Congress will handle spending fights over the rest of the term.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.