October 2, 2025
4 Ming read
This closure of the US government is different, especially for science
President Trump's budget office sets out guiding principles for mass federal dismissals, since the US government stops
The US government has stopped many operations at the beginning of Wednesday after Congress was not able to adopt a law on financing the activities of agencies.
Pete Kihart/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The US government closed at 12:01 East on October 1, after the lawmakers in the congress could not agree with financing account to maintain management. Threats Federal disconnections have become ordinary In the last decade, but this closure may be different: the US presidential administration Donald Trump encouraged mass dismissal of federal workers – a group that includes tens of thousands of scientists – during the period in financing.
“When you close it, you must make dismissal. So, we would put aside a lot of people who will be very touched on, ”Trump said on September 30. It is unclear when such dismissals begin, whether they will survive legal problems or how vast they be. Even without any dismissal controlled by the closure, the Trump administration projects that by the end of the year it will reduce 300,000 people from federal labor by about 2.4 million people within the framework of the year. His efforts to reduce governmentField
Meanwhile, the federal government has stopped uninhabited operations. Scientific agency employees were sent home, their study was suspended. A National US Health Institutes (NIH) planned to stop his own fundamental study and stop taking new people to the NIH hospital in Betesda, Maryland. If the shutdown lasts more than a few days, this will directly affect non -governmental researchers: both National Scientific Fund of the United States (NSF) and USA to protect the environment of the United StatesY (EPA) will stop the award of new grants.
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The closure “can have a significant impact on the scientific study of the enterprise, and much of this depends on how much time is closing,” says Joan Padron Carney, director of government issues of the American Association for the Development of Science, a non-profit organization in Washington.
It is unclear how the shutdown can last long. The first administration of Trump (2017–21) showed 35-day closure, the longest in US historyIt cost about 5 billion US dollars and led to failures in most US scientific agencies. The set date, so that the parties meet for negotiations.
The White House did not answer NatureQuestions about mass dismissals and the impact of disconnection on science.
Showdown shutdown
In March, a small group of democrats of the Senate voted with the Republicans for the adoption of the bill in order to support the open government. But this time, democrat lawmakers expressed concern about the loss of healthcare subsidies and a number of other issues, including attacks on freedom of speech.
Although many scientists are worried about the influence of closing, some, including some federal researchers, consider this as an opportunity for Congress to disrupt the activities of the Trump team, which have already included Significant dismissalsBudget reduction and research violation.
At a public protest in Washington, the district of Colombia, on September 29, federal employees opposed the actions of the Trump administration. “American Science, the gold and leading world scientific and innovative enterprise, is destroyed,” said Mark Histad, a neurobiologist from NIH in Betesda. “Congress has a rare moment of the lever to check the excessive excess of the head of Trump, and he must stand up and do it.”
Radical contractions
No previous shutdowns threatened mass dismissal, officially called power reduction (RIF). In accordance with The leadership has been released White House management and budget department (OMB), the office instructed the agencies to consider the issue of RIF notifications to all employees who work on certain projects: those whose Congress financed on October 1, and whose goals do not “correspond to the priorities of the president.” Carni says that a memorandum can be used to close programs, which will lead to a loss of institutional knowledge in scientific agencies.
Agencies whose budgets are reduced have a discretion to reduce staff, but it is unclear whether this body is used during a stop, says Nick Bednar, a legal scientist in the cities of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “We are largely in the territory,” he says. The administration has already encountered legal pushing in previous mass layouts. In September, a The judge decided The fact that the dismissal of 25,000 federal workers at the beginning of this year was illegal, but since the termination of their restoration there was too much time. On September 30, two trade unions sued the administration to block any RIF.
Scarring details
Nature I contacted several federal agencies about their disconnection plans. No one has provided information about potential RIFs. But a huge number of federal employees in scientific agencies are already on unpaid leave.
According to plans distributed before the closing of the government, NSF intended to gain about 75% of its employees. The National Ocean and Atmosphere of the United States expected to reset 54% of its staff, stopping the “majority of research events.” In NASA, in which 83% of employees were shot down, the skeleton crew will work active companions.
The website of the US Department of Energy did not have a detailed plan in case of unforeseen circumstances, and the representative of the agency refused to provide detailed information about the issued personnel. In the EPA, 86% of employees should be condensed, but current experiments will be preserved.
A plan for unforeseen circumstances For NIH, the vacation of 78% of employees was indicated, preserving only important functions, such as caring for existing patients. Centers for the control and prevention of diseases in the United States will be released 64% of its employeesField
One set of events was authorized to continue in all agencies during the closure: on September 28, staff management was published management The statement that the actions related to the administration of RIF, for example, sending notifications of termination are exempted from freezing related to shutdown.
With additional messages of Max Kozlov, Heidi Ledford, Mariana Lenharo and Alexander Vitz.
This article is reproduced with permission and was First published October 1, 2025Field
