Potential US budget cuts could have a significant impact on science

While President Obama has pledged to protect “critical investments in science and technology,” looming cuts to the US government’s budget could severely reduce the amount of funding these areas receive. The White House Office of Management and Budget has released a lengthy new report covering the potential impact of these budget cuts, which reveals that various science agencies of note could see drastic cuts. The National Institutes of Health, for instance, would be hit with a loss of $2.5 billion in authorized spending, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose $464 million and the The National Science Foundation $630 million.

NASA, meanwhile, would see cuts as well, including having its science budget slashed by $417 million along with $346 million less for space exploration. Of course, these cuts are a worst case scenario, and there’s the possibility that Congress could put in place a stop-gap budget for a short period of time — though as Nature points out, if a new deal isn’t reached prior to November’s presidential elections, there will only be a few weeks left to work out something before the cuts are scheduled to take place in January. Let’s hope everything works out so that the country doesn’t have to stop dreaming.