House appropriators are rejecting the Trump administration’s proposal to cut funding at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The fiscal 2026 Commerce Department spending bill being considered by the House Appropriations Committee includes $1.28 billion for NIST, an 11% increase above the agency’s current funding levels. The subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies marked up its 2026 appropriations package on Tuesday.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, had proposed a $325 million cut to NIST’s discretionary budget in fiscal 2026 compared to the agency’s 2025 budget. The proposal would slash more than 650 jobs at the agency.
The administration is specifically seeking to eliminate NIST’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program. The MEP program includes 97 positions and helps fund a national network of centers across all 50 states and Puerto Rico that provide services to small and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers.
“Much has changed in the manufacturing landscape of the U.S. and competing nations in the 37 years since the creation of MEP,” NIST’s 2026 budget justification document states. “As currently envisioned and implemented the MEP program struggles to deliver meaningful and scaled solutions to the challenges facing American manufacturing, especially in the most critical technology sectors.”
But House appropriators apparently rejected those arguments, as they continue funding the Hollings MEP program with $175 million in 2026.
The White House’s budget would also cut $125 million and 556 positions from NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research and Services program. Budget documents state NIST would specifically reduce funding for areas including cybersecurity and privacy; health and biological systems measurements; and physical infrastructure and resilience.
However, House appropriators’ bill would allocate $980 million for NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research and Services program, a $237 million increase compared to the program’s current funding level
But about $272 million of the program’s funding in the House subcommittee’s bill would be allocated for “Community Project Funding,” or earmarks specified by lawmakers.
The House subcommittee has not yet released the report on the 2026 Commerce spending bill that would detail those earmarks.
While the Trump administration has not initiated steep workforce cuts at NIST — as it has at other Commerce Department components — lawmakers have warned against potential reductions at the standards agency.
“Removing national and international leaders from the nonpartisan and professional civil service at NIST would hamper the development of critical standards, threaten industrial and consumer safety, and weaken American leadership around the world,” stated 22 House Democrats in an April 2 letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
NTIA funding
House appropriators’ 2026 Commerce bill would also allocate $47 million for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, about 20% below 2025 spending levels.
That amount is in line with the Trump administration’s budget proposal for NTIA. The administration has specifically proposed canceling Digital Equity Act programs, which were funded under the 2022 infrastructure bill.
The proposed cuts come as House lawmakers separately voted to codify several NTIA offices and hand the agency additional responsibilities.
The House this week approved the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act. The bill would formalize the duties of NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development and rename it the Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity.
That office would oversee policy development for internet and communications technology at NTIA. Its statutory duties would include making efforts to “advocate for policies that promote the security and resilience to cybersecurity incidents of communications networks while fostering innovation, including policies that promote secure communications network supply chains.”
Additionally, the House passed a bill that would codify NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences.  The ITS is a research and engineering laboratory that works on spectrum and communications technologies, including representing federal agencies before the Federal Communications Commission.
House lawmakers also voted to approve the “Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Network Acts.” That vote comes as lawmakers probe the Trump administration’s response to the “Salt Typhoon” breach of multiple U.S. telecommunications networks.
The bill would require NTIA to work with the Department of Homeland Security on a report “examining the cybersecurity of mobile service networks and the vulnerability of such networks and mobile devices to cyberattacks and surveillance conducted by adversaries.”
The report would be due within a year of the bill becoming law.
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