Federal agency funding update (Feb. 2026)

Overall Federal updates

• Congress and the President have approved an FY 2026 funding package that fully funds the vast majority of federal agencies through September 30, 2026.
• Federal research funding is generally up modestly overall in FY 2026, with national security and health research as clear priorities and smaller but notable gains for physical sciences and technology agencies.
• Five agencies account for about 92% of federal R&D: DOD, NIH, DOE, NASA, and NSF, with DoD and NIH together making up about three‑quarters of total federal R&D funding.

 DoD

• DoD funding is ~$146 billion, a 3-4% increase over FY 2025, with emphasis on AI, cyber, and advanced technology.

HHS / NIH / CDC

• HHS funding is $116.8 billion, slightly above FY 2025, with increases for both NIH and CDC with $47-$49 billion for NIH and $7.35 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

NSF / NASA / DOE

• NSF funding is $8.75 billion in FY 2026, compared with 9.06 billion in FY 2024 and 8.826 billion in FY 2025
• NASA funding is $24.44 billion in core FY 2026 appropriations, slightly below the $24.84 billion for FY 2025, but when paired with $3.1 billion in supplemental funds, its effective total rises to $27.53 billion.
• DOE funding is $8.40 billion for FY 2026, up from $8.24 billion FY 2024

 USDA-ARS / AFRI

• The FY 2026 AFRI Foundational and Applied Science RFA anticipates $300 million in program funding drawn from FY 2026 appropriations, within an overall AFRI total of $407 million.
• Program areas include plant systems, animal systems, food safety/nutrition/health, bioenergy and environment, ag systems and technology, and ag economics and rural communities, with example set‑asides including $61 million for plant systems and $56 million for animal systems.