Government Shutdown Ends, Agriculture Appropriations Funding Enacted
After nearly six weeks of a federal government shutdown, the Senate voted 60-40 to approve a bipartisan spending package to reopen the government and extend current funding through January 30. The agreement includes three full-year fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations bills covering Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch operations.
The appropriations minibus rejected many of the deep cuts sought by the Trump Administration for agricultural research. Intramural research at the Agricultural Research Service is funded at $1.8 billion, a $66 million increase from last year and $154 million more than the President's budget request. Extramural research at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture is flat funded at $1.7 billion--a rejection by Congress of the $640 million cut sought by the President. Congress trimmed funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 10 regional climate hubs, rather than completely defund the program, as the House-passed bill sought to do.
The package also ensures back pay for furloughed employees. In the days since the government reopened, the Trump Administration issued guidance to federal agencies to retroactively pay all furloughed and essential workers, the later of whom were required to work without pay during the shutdown.
Mass staff layoffs are also on hold for the time being. Since the government reopened, the White House instructed agencies to nullify 4,000 reductions in force issued during the shutdown, most of which were blocked by the courts. The Continuing Resolution also includes a clause that prohibits a reduction in force within any federal agency through January 30, 2026. This means a reprieve for Department of the Interior staff, where leadership sought to eliminate more than 2,000 jobs across the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), and the Office of the Secretary.
The budget deal, brokered by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Angus King (I-ME), follows weeks of negotiations over health insurance subsidies and federal worker protections. As part of the deal, Senate Republicans agreed to a December vote on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Although some Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), opposed the measure for not immediately addressing health care costs, a bloc of eight moderate Democrats joined Republicans to advance the bill in the Senate. This included Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Tim Kaine of Virginia.
The House of Representatives passed the funding deal in a vote of 222 to 209.
Congress will need to reach a deal on the remaining nine appropriations bills by the end of January or face a partial government shutdown.
Trump Nominates Steve Pearce to Lead BLM
President Donald Trump has nominated former New Mexico congressman Steve Pearce to serve as the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Pearce previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019. He served on the House Natural Resources Committee. A staunch Trump ally and former chair of the New Mexico Republican Party, Pearce has been a vocal advocate for expanding oil and gas drilling on federal lands and reducing the size of national monuments.
The pick marks Trump's second attempt to fill the post after Kathleen Sgamma, former president of the Western Energy Alliance, abruptly withdrew her nomination earlier this year. BLM, which manages over 245 million acres of U.S. land as well as energy development and mining on roughly 700 million acres of federal subsurface mineral holdings, did not have a Senate-confirmed director during Trump's first term.
Pearce's nomination has drawn praise from industry groups and Western Republicans, who describe him as deeply familiar with the challenges of managing public lands. Environmental advocates, however, have criticized the choice, citing his history of opposing conservation measures and questioning climate science. Senate Democrats, led by New Mexico's Martin Heinrich, are expected to scrutinize Pearce's record on oil and gas policy during what is likely to be a contentious confirmation process.
Federal Hiring Freeze Extended
The Trump Administration is indefinitely continuing a federal government hiring freeze that started at the beginning of this term. The freeze was scheduled to sunset.
Under an Executive Order issued by President Trump in October, as well as from new guidance from the White House, political appointees will now make hiring decisions about civil service positions. The White House stated that a goal of the effort is to reduce "ineffective government programs." A "strategic hiring committee" formed by each government agency will be in charge of all new employee hires. The only exceptions are for military personnel, political appointments, and public safety, national security, or immigration enforcement positions.
Meanwhile, three federal employee unions are suing the administration over the inclusion of an essay question on federal job applications that the groups claim is a loyalty test. The question asks applicants: "How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired."
To date, more than 5,800 job applications have included the question.
"Potential federal job applicants who want to serve the United States but do not personally support the president's executive orders and policy initiatives--or simply prefer not to share their political beliefs and views when applying for a career federal job--will be compelled to speak in the form of a written essay praising the President's orders and policies (in order to better their chances of employment), risk being punished for answering honestly, or be chilled from speaking at all," the unions stated in their complaint.
Researchers Oppose Proposed Ban on U.S.-China Research Collaborations
U.S. scientists and university groups are pushing back against a congressional proposal that would bar federal funding for researchers who collaborate with colleagues or students from China and other "hostile" nations. The measure, known as the Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation (SAFE Research) Act, is part of the House-passed defense authorization bill. It does not appear in the Senate version of the bill. Notably, the proposed policy would apply retroactively, penalizing researchers for collaborations within the past five years.
Representative John Moolenaar (R-MI), who introduced the proposal, says it aims to prevent foreign exploitation of U.S.-funded research. Scientists, however, warn that the bill would have a chilling effect on international collaboration and disproportionately harm researchers of Chinese descent.
Nearly 800 U.S. scientists, major higher education groups, as well as the Asian American Scholar Forum have voiced opposition, arguing that the measure is overly broad, lacks clear definitions, and echoes the discriminatory impacts of the former Trump-era "China Initiative."
Lawmakers are currently reconciling differences between the House and Senate bills, with final action expected by year's end.
USFWS Halts Work on Gray Wolf Recovery Plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced it will not prepare recovery plans for gray wolves after concluding that the species no longer requires protection under the Endangered Species Act.
In a report released November 3, the agency stated that gray wolves are "no longer in need of conservation under the Act." The report cites studies that suggest existing populations "will retain the ability to withstand stochastic and catastrophic events in the future" and will "remain large enough, with sufficient connectivity and genetic diversity" to avoid consequential decline.
The move reverses a Biden-era initiative to craft the first nationwide gray wolf recovery plan by late 2025. Gray wolves are currently listed as endangered in 44 states and as threatened in Minnesota, with an estimated population of roughly 2,800 individuals across seven western states.
Conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, condemned the move as premature and politically motivated, and vowed to challenge it in court. The announcement comes amid ongoing litigation over gray wolf protections in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
CBD Launches Targeted Survey to Support Review of the Nagoya Protocol
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is inviting input to support the second assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.
As requested under previous decisions (NP-3/1 and NP-5/5), the Executive Secretary is conducting targeted surveys to gather information on challenges to the Protocol's implementation and compliance. The findings will inform a forthcoming scoping study examining root causes of implementation challenges and possible ways to strengthen the Protocol.
Surveys are open until December 15, 2025 and available to:
PDF versions of the surveys and the full notification are available at the CBD website.
AIBS Joins Letter in Support of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at NSF
AIBS joined 57 other scientific societies and research institutions in a letter urging congressional appropriators to provide the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the highest possible funding level in fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations and to adopt Senate language supporting sustained investment in NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate.
The letter highlights how SBE-funded research underpins advances in artificial intelligence, national security, and economic growth--including work that has earned the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics.
"Millions of scientists, students, teachers, and entrepreneurs across this country have and will continue to benefit from Congress' investment in NSF--and specifically the SBE Directorate--to advance cutting-edge research to accelerate technological innovation, national security, and economic prosperity," the letter argued.
Webinar: Natural History Collections and Repatriation - Beyond NAGPRA
Please join NSC Alliance, American Institute of Biological Sciences, and Society for the preservation of Natural History Collections for an information session about repatriation and how it relates to natural history collections held at museums, herbaria, and other institutions. We will be joined by a wide array of speakers who will share their perspectives on and experiences with repatriation, including cases for voluntary return. The program will delve into a zoological and a botanical case study of ethical return.
Date: December 8, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time / 12:00-1:00 PM Mountain Time / 11:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific Time
A previous webinar we organized covered repatriation under Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in the context of natural history collections. The December webinar will focus on repatriation issues outside NAGPRA's scope and will be recorded.
Intended audience:
- Collections and curatorial staff across natural history disciplines (e.g., zoology, botany, geology, paleontology)
- Tribal, Native Hawaiian, and institutional representatives engaged in repatriation and dispersed cultural legacies
- Researchers, students, and everyone else working with or interested in issues of repatriation and dispersed cultural legacies
Register Now.
Short Takes
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President Trump has re-nominated tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), five months after abruptly withdrawing the same nomination. Isaacman, who has flown on two private SpaceX missions, would take over an agency facing deep budget cuts, low morale, and uncertainty over its lunar plans. The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee previously approved his nomination in a bipartisan vote of 19 to 9 before the nomination was withdrawn.
Elsevier's new Researcher of the Future survey of more than 3,000 researchers across 113 countries shows that researchers are turning to AI tools with growing frequency, even as doubts about their reliability persist. Only 45% of scientists feel they have enough time to do research, yet 58% are already using AI tools--a sharp rise from 37% last year. While most see AI as transformative, just 27% say they have received adequate AI training and only 22% consider current AI tools trustworthy. The report also highlights regional divides: 64% of Chinese researchers say AI empowers their work, compared with just 25% in the U.S. and 24% in the U.K.
The Trump Administration will continue collecting data on PFAS 'forever chemicals,' but announced wide-ranging exemptions to a Biden-era data collection initiative. The new exemptions are for research and development purposes, chemicals manufactured in small quantities, imports, and byproducts. The net effect of the exemptions is a 99.8% reduction in the number of entities that have to report data to the federal government.
A new headquarters for the National Science Foundation was announced, months after the Trump Administration abruptly informed agency staff that their building would be taken over by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The new location is also in Alexandria, Virginia, about a half-mile from the current headquarters.
Several senior positions within the National Institutes of Health are open to job applicants. Six institutes and centers are seeking new directors. Learn more at https://hr.nih.gov/careers/open-positions.
