'That's just not a winning strategy': Congress objects (again) to Trump's planned NASA budget cuts

President Trump's big NASA budget cuts appear to be dead on arrival, again. Earlier this month, the White House released its fiscal year (FY) 2027 federal budget request, which slashes NASA's total budget by 23% and its science funding by 47%. Trump proposed the same basic reductions for FY 2026 but was denied by Congress , which has the power of the purse in Washington. And it looks like history will repeat itself this year. The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing about the NASA budget on Wednesday (April 22) that featured agency chief Jared Isaacman as its star witness. During the event, representatives from both sides of the aisle voiced concerns about the proposed cuts and signaled an intent to reject them again. "Both the president and Congress have provided explicit direction for NASA to undertake a range of activities, from exploration and science to aeronautics research. We must ensure that NASA is funded at a level that allows it to pursue those missions," Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), who chairs the committee, said during the hearing. "I simply do not believe that this budget proposal is capable of supporting what President Trump himself has directed the agency to accomplish over the course of his two terms, nor what Congress has directed by law," he added. …