The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill approved by Congress today preserves several of the scientific initiatives that the Trump administration wanted to kill, including a West Coast earthquake warning system and the WFIRST space telescope.
It may not be popular with Senate GOP conservatives such as Rand Paul, but the bill’s a hit with the likes of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“The scientific community is over the moon with the bipartisan omnibus bill in Congress that significantly increases funding for research and development,” AAAS CEO Rush Holt, a physicist who served in the House from 1999 to 2015, said in a statement.
AAAS’ analysis shows that total R&D spending would reach its highest point ever in inflation-adjusted dollars, amounting to $176.8 billion.
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