Washington Week in Science - November 6, 2026

 Washington Week in Science - November 6, 2026

A Weekly Update of Policy News and Select Funding Opportunities Compiled by Van Scoyoc Associates View this email in your browser November 6, 2026

Health   Pharma critic Bernie Sanders is set to hold major sway over FDA funding bill Democrats’ landslide victory in the midterm elections may have significant implications for the upcoming negotiations over a key funding source for the Food and Drug Administration, in part by empowering a major critic of the program. The FDA collects user fees from pharmaceutical companies to fund the agency’s reviews of their medicines. The Prescription User Fee Drug Act must be renewed before the current law expires on Sept. 30. Otherwise, it could disrupt the FDA’s ability to approve medicines. The power to shape that legislation will fall to senior Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who will likely lead the Senate’s health committee. Sanders is one of the few lawmakers who have opposed the core premise of the user fee structure. Read more:  STAT News   A baby in Wisconsin has died from measles, the 3rd such US death this week An infant in Wisconsin has died from measles, the first such death in the state since 1990—36 years ago. The coroner listed the immediate cause of death as measles, according to a press release from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS). To protect the child's and family's privacy, DHS said it will not release additional information. The loss of this child in Wisconsin marks the third measles-related death reported by a state health department in the United States this week: An infant died in New York, and another Pennsylvanian has passed. Read more:  CIDRAP   Dem senator presses call for Kennedy to ‘resign or be fired’ after election Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) renewed her call for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from office Wednesday — more than a year after she joined fellow Democrats in demanding his ouster over the HHS secretary’s handling of the nation’s public health agencies. “The time is now. RFK Jr. must resign or be fired. End of discussion,” Alsobrooks wrote on social media Wednesday. Read more:  The Hill   National Security   Hegseth said he’s not leaving the Pentagon despite calls for his impeachment A defiant Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he wouldn’t back down after this week’s midterm elections saw Democrats take control of both houses of Congress. Mr. Hegseth defended his sweeping Pentagon overhaul, which dismantled DEI programs throughout the military and forced dozens of generals and admirals out of uniform. Multiple lawmakers on Capitol Hill have pursued or openly prepared articles of impeachment against Mr. Hegseth. President Trump has dismissed reports that he is preparing to fire his Pentagon chief, stating that Mr. Hegseth is doing a “very good job.” However, he acknowledged Thursday that confirming a replacement would be easier before Democrats take over the Senate in January. Read more:  Washington Times   Congressman calls for tougher Pentagon oversight in bid for committee chair Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., is making Pentagon oversight a central priority in his bid to reclaim the chairmanship of the House Armed Services Committee, calling for greater scrutiny of the Trump administration’s military operations abroad, troop deployments to American cities and the Department of Defense’s spending. In a Wednesday letter to his Democratic colleagues, the Washington representative called for more public testimony from senior defense officials and the restoration of a dedicated oversight subcommittee, listing strikes in the Caribbean and the U.S.’s war with Iran — the latter of which he called “illegal” — among his top concerns. Smith also questioned the need for a defense budget exceeding $1 trillion, arguing that Congress must reassert its authority over military policy under what he described as a “runaway Executive Branch.” Read more:  Military Times   Pentagon sued over its Project Meridian advisory committee A group of government watchdogs is asking a federal judge to immediately shut down the Pentagon’s Project Meridian, the department’s new panel focused on the future of warfare. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Citizen and the Project On Government Oversight are suing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Defense Department Technology Chief Emil Michael. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that the department violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Read more:  Federal News Network   Trump says he will end billions of dollars in military aid to Israel President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will end nearly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel, an unusually timed announcement on Election Day that could set up a standoff with Congress. The president said on “Fox and Friends” that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed “months ago” to stop the aid by the end of the year. “They’re fine with it because they’ve become a very successful country,” Trump said. “They don’t need it. And we won’t be paying anymore...we won’t be paying Israel. We’ll help Israel if they need it. They’ve been a great ally.” Read more:  Politico   US approves $2.1 billion Patriot missile sale to Ukraine The U.S. State Department said on Friday it had approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1 billion, in what would be one of the most significant steps to supply defensive weapons to Kyiv since the start of the second Trump administration. Delayed missile deliveries have ‌added ⁠to Ukraine’s tensions with the U.S. after President Donald Trump announced a diesel deal with Russia and criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Ukraine’s unwillingness to stop attacks on Russian refineries. Read more:  Military Times   U.S. was unprepared for drone warfare, Pentagon’s Emil Michael says The Pentagon’s technology chief said the U.S. had been unprepared for the modern era of drone warfare and is racing to arm its troops with the autonomous systems that have come to dominate conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. “We were caught flat-footed by the drone warfare in Ukraine and Russia,” Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for research and engineering, said at the WSJ Tech conference Wednesday. “We weren’t prepared because we just didn’t imagine it. I just want to make sure we are imagining the next fight.” Read more:  WSJ   Energy   DOE offers funding to build out U.S. grid supply chain Last Friday the Department of Energy made $237 million available to strengthen U.S. supply chains for power grid components, including distribution transformers that are critical for electric cooperatives. The Grid Supply Chain Alternatives to Lead Energy Dominance (SCALED) notice of funding opportunity will provide $50 million to promote refurbishment and reuse of existing grid equipment and materials and $187 million to increase use of domestically sourced alternative materials and subcomponents. Read more:  NRECA    Antares, Last Energy, and Radiant hit DOE authorization milestones The month of October saw three of the original Reactor Pilot Program companies hit a handful of milestones as each pursues Department of Energy authorization for the operation of various reactor projects. Both Last Energy and Radiant earned documented safety analyses (DSAs) for their first reactors, and Antares earned its nuclear safety design agreement (NSDA) for its second reactor. Read more:  Nuclear Newswire   DOE announces $70M to expand America's critical minerals workforce During a visit to Phoenix Tailings' commercial rare earth metals production facility in Exeter, New Hampshire, Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson announced the launch of DOE's PROSPECT Implementation Prize, a three-phase competition offering up to $70 million to help universities expand the skilled workforce required to domestically produce, process, recover, and recycle critical minerals. Building on the recently completed PROSPECT Planning Prize, the competition will help universities put their workforce development plans into action through expanded educational opportunities, hands-on training, modernized curricula, and stronger industry partnerships. Read more:  DOE   U.S. restores key nuclear weapons manufacturing capability after 20 years For the first time in 20 years, the United States can once again produce a specialized material used in U.S. nuclear weapons, marking a major step toward the modernization of the nuclear stockpile. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has qualified the Y-12 National Security Complex to resume production of a material known as “binary” alloy, ending two decades of reliance on a limited supply of material manufactured years ago. Binary alloy is used to manufacture radiation cases, which enclose essential components within America’s nuclear weapons. Read more:  DOE   Space   NASA’s new bosses on Capitol Hill: what the midterms mean for space Tuesday’s midterm elections gave Democrats a majority in both chambers of Congress. With that comes a handover of the control of the committees that authorize, fund and oversee NASA, NOAA and the Space Force. Whether this somewhat seismic shift will have far-reaching consequences for the space sector remains to be seen. Budgets may not shift all that much but what is done with those budgets may change somewhat – especially for NASA when it comes to its space and earth science activities. Read more:  NASA Watch   NASA announces X-70 program, promises more coming NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a new subsonic X-plane program on Nov. 4, promising more will follow to recapture the agency’s legacy of breakthrough flight research. The X-70 Fractal should reach first flight within two years as a subsonic testbed for advanced flight controls and maneuvering, with the ability to carry payloads up to 2,000 lb. A smoky, dark image revealed a blurred outline of an airframe with canted tails and possibly side-mounted engine inlets on either side of a wide fuselage. Read more:  Aviation Week   Blue Origin announces 3rd stage for its powerful New Glenn rocket — and a new engine Jeff Bezos' company announced Thursday that it has developed a third stage for its New Glenn rocket, which it says will make the powerful launcher more capable and flexible. The stage, called the GS3, "enhances New Glenn's capabilities," Blue Origin said in a blog post. "The third stage enables direct deployment of satellite constellations to GEO [geostationary orbit] and supports heavy-lift science and exploration missions to the moon and deep space." Read more:  Space.com   Science and Technology   ‘Revenge of the nerds’: US midterms deliver a win for science – and a rebuke of Maha A political organization behind a wave of Democratic doctors and scientists winning elections up and down the ballot is calling the stunning rebuke of Trumpism the “Stem swing” and “revenge of the nerds.” The wins come after years of cuts and upheaval to US health and science infrastructure, as Democrats spent big on health-related ads and as voters rejected the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement. “It’s clear from the results: 2026 was a healthcare election,” said Erik Polyak, executive director of 3.14 Action, a group that worked to elect Democratic health professionals and scientists across the country. “We’ve heard a lot about affordability. Healthcare affordability is the No 1 piece of that. Our doctors and scientists are certainly well-equipped to lead on those issues.” Read more:  The Guardian   How Trump is dismantling America’s scientific research machine Under President Trump, the federal government is still spending roughly as much on research — about $200 billion this year — as the administrations that came before. Scientists across the country are still receiving grants; universities are still being funded. But beneath the surface, the system of federally funded science that helped make the United States a global superpower is under intense strain from Trump policies, jeopardizing the nation’s advantages in defense, medicine and technology, a New York Times examination has found. Read more:  NY Times   Fundamental Science and Engineering   Midterm outcomes will have significant implications affecting science policy This week’s midterm elections have significant implications for federal science policy. Democrats plan to investigate grant terminations and leadership conduct at the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and other federal science agencies. That said, some observers caution that lawmakers possess limited tools to reverse Trump administration policies, which have led to heavy losses of agency scientists and grant terminations. Congress returns from a month-long recess on Nov. 9. Most federal funding expires on Dec. 12, meaning the current Congress will need to pass some form of spending legislation before then or face a government shutdown. Any bills not passed before the new Congress arrives in January will expire, putting pressure on their backers to get them across the line before the end of the year. Read more:  AIP   In Case You Missed It—Important Research News from NSF This Week   Alabama researchers reveal new project aimed at developing stronger, drought-resistant crops Dr. Gabe Xu, a UAH professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and principal investigator on the project, has received aNational Science Foundation (NSF) award totaling $1,184,600 to advance cold-plasma agriculture treatment technology toward larger-scale systems for commercial use. The work brings together researchers from UAH, Alabama A&M University and Auburn University, along with industry and agricultural partners, to translate laboratory-developed technology into systems that could help farmers increase crop productivity, improve food safety and reduce spoilage while using fewer resources. Learn more:  UAH   NSF renews C-CoMP for five years to investigate microbial chemistry shaping the ocean The U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed funding for the Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP) for an additional five years, extending a major interdisciplinary effort to understand how microscopic organisms and the molecules they exchange shape Earth’s oceans, carbon cycle, and climate. Based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), C-CoMP brings together researchers and expertise across marine chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, oceanography, modeling, and informatics to investigate the chemicals that connect marine microorganisms. Learn more:  WHOI   NSF awards $5.1 million to Northeastern to develop adaptive wireless infrastructure for AI data centers The National Science Foundation has awarded Northeastern University $5.1 million to address one of artificial intelligence's most consequential and least-discussed infrastructure challenges: the millions of cables that are choking the world's largest AI data centers. The three-year Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (VINES) Track 2 award will fund the development and real-world demonstration of sub-terahertz (sub-THz) wireless links capable of carrying hundreds of gigabits per second — inside operating AI data centers where traditional cabling is rapidly reaching its physical limits. The Northeastern-led research program will design, build, and validate a sub-THz wireless network that augments and, in targeted applications, replaces today's structured cabling for both out-of-band management networks and primary data fabric traffic. Learn more:  EIN News   Oceans and Atmosphere   NOAA, NASA rank 2026 ozone hole among 10 largest on record Extreme weather conditions caused the Antarctic ozone hole to grow to an unusually large size in 2026, NOAA and NASA scientists reported this week, though they said the protective ozone layer is still on track to recover by later this century. Fueled by a powerful polar vortex, the 2026 ozone hole became the seventh-largest in 48 years of monitoring, based on NOAA and NASA analysis of its seasonal mean area. However, scientists noted that this year’s hole would have been larger still if levels of ozone-destroying chemicals in the atmosphere had not been reduced through international cooperation. Read more:  CU Boulder   Environment   EPA pulls the plug on regulating air pollution from giant livestock and poultry operations The Environmental Protection Agency late last week announced it would end a 20-plus-year effort to develop methods to monitor air pollution from factory farms, effectively shuttering the agency’s stop-and-start attempts to regulate the potentially pollutant-spewing facilities under the Clean Air Act. The announcement came just days before the midterm elections. Read more:  Inside Climate News   Republicans ask appeals court to overturn California EPA waiver ruling Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other senior Republicans on Wednesday asked ‌a US appeals court to overturn a ruling that found the Environmental Protection Agency improperly sent landmark California vehicle emissions rules to lawmakers for potential repeal. The EPA previously granted California waivers under the Clean Air Act to enact its own emission ​standards for cars and trucks as well as lawn-and-garden equipment. The EPA sent those waivers to ​Congress in June for potential repeal but a US district court judge found ⁠the EPA action likely unlawful. Read more:  Reuters   Agriculture   Election results create uncertainty for lame-duck farm bill negotiations An ag lobbyist says the shift in Congressional control could complicate efforts to pass major legislation during the upcoming lame-duck session. Democrats will take control of Congress in January, as a result of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Randy Russell with the Russell Group tells Brownfield it’s likely going to be a shorter lame duck session with fewer policies being addressed. “If you’re the Democrats and the leadership in the new Congress, where you know you’re going to have pretty wide margins and will be controlling the committee gavels in early January, besides dealing with the government funding bill, which expires December 11, the question is: what else could potentially get done?” Read more:  Brownfield Ag News   USDA awards $51.9M to fight feral swine in 13 states The USDA has awarded $51.9 million to 29 partnership projects in 13 states to help partners respond to the threat feral swine pose to American agriculture, landscapes and human and livestock health. The awarded projects are part of a broader $105 million investment for the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program, where USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are working together to target feral swine. “Feral swine pose a threat to America’s working lands, and through this program, we’re bringing together America’s agricultural producers and partners to combat feral swine and protect agricultural landscapes,” said NRCS Chief Colton L. Buckley. Read more:  Farm Progress   USDA asks judge to lift employee relocation stay that ‘significantly hinders’ its operations The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to lift a temporary hold on the Agriculture Department’s employee relocation plans, arguing that the ruling prevents USDA components from filling critical vacancies across its operations. Justice Department attorneys told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a filing submitted last Friday that an Oct. 13 stay barring USDA from carrying out employee relocations “significantly hinders USDA’s operations across the board.” DOJ attorneys wrote the stay makes it harder for the Forest Service to fill “critical positions” in wildfire management and avalanche mitigation, and “impairs USDA’s ability to conduct cutting-edge research.” Read more:   Government Executive   USDA errors raise credibility concerns ahead of November crop reports USDA’s next Crop Production report and Supply and Demand update comes Nov. 10, a week after the big midterm U.S. elections. Farmers are understandably exasperated following recent USDA crop estimates that either wildly and bearishly diverged from expectations, or were just plain wrong. The latest example came on a Friday afternoon in late October, when USDA announced its September Crop Production report included erroneous corn yield estimates for Kansas and Nebraska. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service found a “processing error” that affected September corn plant populations, ear counts, yields and production for those states, which also had knock-on effects for other aspects of the report, including the nationwide average yield, which was slightly increased. Read more:  Farm Progress