Washington shutdown. PHOTO: E. BILLMAN/SCIENCE

Dear Commons Community,

The Science News staff published an article this morning entitled, “Chaos and confusion as U.S. shutdown drags on.” It describes how research funding cutbacks and staff layoffs in key government agencies are taking its toll on science research.  The opening paragraph comments:

“It feels like getting hit by a car right after you’ve barely survived a train wreck.” That’s how one U.S. government scientist describes having her agricultural research facility largely shut down because of a political standoff over funding even as it struggles to cope with hefty staff reductions and potentially deep budget cuts. “It’s just been one blow after another.”  Below is an excerpt from the article.

Chaos and confusion are Trump’s fortes.

Tony

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Science

October 17, 2025

Science News Staff

“The battering isn’t likely to end soon, as Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over how to end the U.S. government shutdown that began on 1 October—and President Donald Trump’s administration has launched a chaotic, and possibly illegal, effort to fire thousands of federal employees.

Last week, for example, the administration sent layoff notices to at least 1300 health workers, including key disease specialists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only to rescind roughly half of the notices within hours. Meanwhile, thousands of other government scientists remain locked out of their offices, laboratories, and email accounts, putting research projects and grantmaking activities in limbo. Many others are still reporting to work, but without pay, because they are in roles deemed “essential”—such as operating spacecraft, treating patients in clinical trials, or keeping laboratory animals alive.

The shutdown and firings come on the heels of 8 months of turmoil that has already seen the Trump administration fire or push into retirement numerous staff at research agencies, freeze hiring, and restrict purchasing and travel. Many scientists are reeling from grant cuts—some later reversed by court orders. Science agencies had to scramble to distribute money by the end of the 2025 fiscal year on 30 September after Trump policies delayed grantmaking early in the year. The White House has also proposed deep cuts to research spending in the 2026 fiscal year that have left many researchers unable to plan for the future.

“It’s slowdown on top of slowdown,” says Benjamin Feldman, who runs a core facility that makes transgenic zebrafish for experiments at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) child health institute.

Feldman has been going into his facility a few times a week for “time sensitive things” such as testing fish to ensure they are bred at the optimal age. But otherwise NIH “is pretty quiet,” Feldman says, speaking for himself and not NIH.

About 25% of NIH employees are considered essential, mostly within NIH’s in-house research program, but most extramural grants staff are furloughed, meaning grant-review meetings are on hold. Reviewers can continue to upload their critiques, however, although NIH can’t process new applications.

The disruption couldn’t come at a worse time for Julie Kovacs, a bioinorganic chemist at the University of Washington (UW) whose grant proposal was slated to be reviewed on 23 October. Any delay, she says, could leave her research group—which investigates how certain enzymes fight tumors and synthesize antibiotics—in limbo next spring, when their current NIH grant ends.

Kovacs and other researchers would typically rely on bridge funding from their institution to stay afloat. But UW has warned its employees that “current federal policy volatility” may affect such funding. Kovacs fears she might be forced to shut her 30-year-old lab: “Such a waste,” she says.

At CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), staffers are suffering from whiplash. First came sweeping layoffs unveiled on the night of 10 October. Those fired included leaders of efforts to confront a measles outbreak, scientists with CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, and nearly the entire staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the agency’s flagship journal. Within 24 hours, however, HHS officials rescinded many of those layoffs, saying about 700 were errors. As Science went to press, other senior CDC officials, including the head of its chronic disease prevention center, were waiting to hear whether their firings would also be reversed.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which has 820,000 members, has sued to block the firings. “The administration is misusing the shutdown process for partisan ends and violating the very laws that govern how shutdowns are supposed to function,” says Everett Kelley, AFGE’s president.

Furloughed federal scientists aren’t supposed do work-related tasks at home. Several, from NASA and other agencies, told Science they are continuing to work on manuscripts, sometimes using secure, third-party apps to communicate with colleagues. But they won’t submit papers to a journal while the government is closed, for fear of punishment.

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the shutdown has only added to concerns about the future of the many research programs and facilities the Trump administration has proposed eliminating or downsizing. A wave of firings and resignations has already hobbled some programs, say two USDA researchers. And a vague administration threat to deny backpay to furloughed workers has only “reinforced incentives for the departure of early or midcareer employees,” one says.

At the National Science Foundation, the shutdown has complicated life for NSF-funded scientists needing an icebreaker to work in Antarctica. In 2013, a 16-day shutdown disrupted U.S. Antarctic research because the company providing logistical support ran out of money. NSF fixed that problem by giving its contractors sufficient advance funding to maintain operations at the three U.S. Antarctic stations during future shutdowns. But earlier this year NSF decided to cancel the lease on the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the only U.S. research vessel dedicated to serving the region.

The agency has pledged to find substitutes for the several upcoming cruises scheduled for the Palmer. But making those switches requires NSF, the contractor, and academic groups to work out myriad logistical details. The shutdown, however, has furloughed nearly all NSF staff, hindering those interactions.

Such disruptions are likely to continue well into October, as neither Democrats nor Republicans appear ready to call a truce in their fight over 2026 funding. One thing is certain, however: The longer the shutdown lasts, the more pain researchers will feel.”