New US spending deal a mixed bag for science

NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) appear to be among the winners – relatively speaking – in a spending deal reached Tuesday night by lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, with both agencies receiving modest funding boosts. But research budgets at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy would remain flat.

The legislation also includes provisions that would continue efforts to open a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, prevent the Obama Administration from moving ahead with new environmental rules aimed at strengthening protections for small streams and wetlands, and bar adding the sage grouse to the endangered species list.

Read more from ScienceInsider.