The American Innovation Act establishes a multiyear funding trajectory for five federal research portfolios—National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, Department of Defense science and technology programs, NIST scientific and technical research, and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate—by authorizing specific annual appropriations for fiscal years 2026–2035 and a CPI-based increase thereafter. The bill treats these sums as appropriated, keeps them available until expended, and defines the covered accounts.
Why it matters: the bill converts episodic, year-to-year increases for basic research into a predictable, decade-long funding plan for core science agencies. That predictability matters for universities, national labs, defense research offices, and large-scale facilities planning multi-year projects and workforce development, and it alters budget dynamics by carving these appropriations out of sequestration and scorecard treatment.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill prescribes annual appropriation levels for five named research accounts for FY2026–FY2035 and requires that from FY2036 onward the prior year’s amount be increased by CPI-U. It also makes those appropriations available until expended and supplies statutory definitions tying the funding to the relevant appropriations accounts.
Who It Affects
Federal research agencies and program offices (NSF, DOE Office of Science, DOD S&T accounts, NIST research accounts, NASA SMD), contractors and grant recipients at universities and national labs, and congressional budget and appropriations staff managing long-term toplines and offsets.
Why It Matters
The measure shifts the fiscal framing for basic science from ad hoc increases to a sustained, indexed program; that reduces year-to-year funding risk for long-lead research infrastructure while creating a permanent budgetary preference for these accounts that will affect broader discretionary trade-offs.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill writes a decade-long funding roadmap for five core federal research portfolios. For each agency it lists a specific dollar amount for each fiscal year from 2026 through 2035 and then instructs that beginning in FY2036 the amount for any given account be the previous year’s appropriation increased by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).
The statute expressly treats those listed sums as authorized and appropriated out of the Treasury and states the amounts remain available until expended.
Practically, the measure functions as a funding guarantee: agencies receive a clear, rising baseline for planning grants, facilities, and long-term workforce investments. The bill also contains short statutory definitions that tie the language to the appropriations accounts supporting the named institutes, offices, and centers within each agency—language intended to prevent reclassification disputes that could otherwise shift funding into or out of the targeted accounts.Beyond the appropriation schedule, the bill amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act to exempt these appropriations from sequestration and instructs that the budgetary effects not be entered on statutory PAYGO scorecards (both the House and Senate mechanisms referenced).
Those two budget changes reduce the risk that an across-the-board sequestration or PAYGO accounting would offset or reverse the intended increases, but they also change how federal deficit and discretionary control mechanisms interact with these research accounts.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill lists a FY2026 appropriation of $9,735,000,000 for the National Science Foundation and a schedule of rising annual amounts through FY2035, with automatic CPI-U indexing beginning in FY2036.
It sets the Department of Energy Office of Science on a similar schedule starting at $8,854,000,000 for FY2026 and increasing annually through FY2035 before CPI-indexing thereafter.
Department of Defense science and technology programs receive the largest proposed increases, beginning at $23,109,000,000 for FY2026 and rising each year to a FY2035 figure the bill specifies, then CPI-indexed from FY2036.
The bill amends section 255(g)(1)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act to exempt the appropriations under this Act from sequestration orders.
It directs that the budgetary effects of the Act not be entered on statutory PAYGO scorecards (both House and Senate scorecard references are covered), effectively excluding these appropriations from PAYGO accounting.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Designates the statute as the "American Innovation Act." Short but relevant: gives the bill a clear policy identity so later references (in appropriations or oversight materials) can point to the act rather than a series of stand-alone line items.
NSF appropriations schedule
Specifies annual amounts for the National Science Foundation for FY2026–FY2035 and instructs that beginning in FY2036 the prior year’s amount will be increased by CPI-U. For compliance officers and university grantees, the practical effect is a foreseeable baseline for grant volumes and multi-year center funding; for budget staff it locks a topline path for NSF that will be referenced in subsequent appropriation actions.
DOE Office of Science appropriations schedule
Prescribes a year-by-year funding trajectory for the Department of Energy Office of Science covering FY2026–FY2035 and the same CPI-U index rule from FY2036. This ties DOE’s research budget to an explicit statutory floor, which affects lab operations, user-facility schedules, and long-term R&D contracts.
Department of Defense science and technology schedule
Sets a multi-year funding path for DOD science and technology programs with higher absolute dollar levels compared to other research accounts. Because the bill targets DOD S&T appropriations (the accounts that fund institutes, offices, and centers), it strengthens funding predictability for defense research but could alter the internal tradeoffs within the DOD topline between acquisition, operations, and R&D.
NIST and NASA Science Mission Directorate schedules
Establishes similar multi-year appropriations for the scientific and technical research accounts at NIST and for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. For agencies that manage large, mission-driven programs (standards work at NIST; science missions and instrument development at NASA), statutory certainty in the baseline supports multi-year procurements and international partnerships that depend on predictable U.S. contributions.
Availability and definitions
Declares that the amounts authorized are available until expended, removing year-by-year rescission pressure and enabling multi-year obligations. The subsection also defines the covered terms—linking the statutory language to the specific appropriations accounts that ‘‘support the various institutes, offices, and centers’’—a drafting choice intended to reduce disputes over whether funds lie within the Act’s scope.
Sequestration exemption and PAYGO treatment
Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act to add the Act’s appropriations to the list of amounts exempt from sequestration and instructs that the budgetary effects not be entered on the House and Senate PAYGO scorecards cited. That combination protects the increases from across-the-board deficit control mechanisms and ordinary PAYGO scoring, changing both the mechanical treatment of the numbers and the political signaling around deficit responsibility.
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Explore Science in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- University research centers and principal investigators — the decade-long schedule and availability-until-expended language reduce funding volatility for multi-year grants and center awards, improving planning for lab builds, hiring, and long-lead experiments.
- National laboratories and federally funded research and development centers — predictable DOE and NSF baselines support sustained user-facility operations, capital projects, and long-term collaborations.
- Defense research offices and military laboratories — larger, steady S&T appropriations give DOD R&D managers more room for advanced technology programs and partnerships with industry and academia.
- NASA science mission programs and mission planners — multi-year funding certainty helps schedule instrument development, international contributions, and mission timelines that span many appropriations cycles.
- NIST and standards communities — stable funding for scientific and technical research supports standards development, measurement science, and industry partnerships that rely on long-term programs.
Who Bears the Cost
- Congressional discretionary priorities outside the five named accounts — the guaranteed rises and exemptions will pressure other discretionary programs when overall toplines are constrained.
- Treasury / federal budget — exempting these appropriations from sequestration and PAYGO reduces automatic deficit-mitigation tools, effectively increasing net discretionary outlays unless Congress offsets elsewhere.
- Appropriations and budget committees — they face reduced leverage over these accounts and may need to reallocate offsets or reprioritize within the remaining discretionary pool.
- Smaller research programs and crosscutting initiatives not named in the Act — those programs may compete for fewer discretionary dollars if the indexed increases consume additional real resources.
- Agency implementation offices — program offices will assume new obligations and multi-year spending plans, increasing administrative load for contract management and long-term oversight.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill trades fiscal flexibility and across-the-board deficit controls for program-level predictability: it guarantees steady, rising funding for a small set of research accounts—helping long-term science planning—but does so by removing those accounts from routine budgetary checks, forcing a choice between protected research investment and broader discretionary balance.
The bill creates a durable preference for a narrow set of federal research accounts by combining explicit appropriations, multi-year schedules, automatic CPI indexing, and exemptions from sequestration and PAYGO. That package solves the problem of short-term instability for core science programs but introduces clear budgetary trade-offs: indexing and exemption insulate these accounts from routine fiscal adjustments, which pushes budgetary pressure elsewhere or increases the demand for offsets.
Operationally, the CPI-U indexing after FY2035 is a blunt tool: it protects nominal purchasing power against general consumer inflation but may not align with sector-specific cost drivers (e.g., capital-intensive facilities, specialized workforce compensation, or energy costs). The definitions in the bill tie funding to ‘‘accounts that support’’ various institutes and centers, but the language is broad enough to invite contention over reprogramming or internal account classification.
Finally, exempting these appropriations from sequestration and PAYGO weakens automatic fiscal safeguards and changes the incentives facing appropriators, raising questions about long-term deficit accountability and whether the legislated preference will be sustainable in tighter budgetary environments.
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