On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold an oversight hearing titled “EXPLORE America250: Enhancing Accessibility at our National Parks and Public Lands.”
Jared Isaacman, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The Administration
requested $18.829 billion for NASA in FY27. This represents a decrease of $5.61 billion (23%)
from FY26 enacted appropriations, including a 46% cut in the science budget.
The FY27 request for the Earth Science Division is $1.02 billion, a decrease of
$1.13 billion (52.6%) from FY26 enacted. The Earth Science Division focuses on deepening our
understanding of our home planet and its interconnected systems. The FY27 request supports one
final government satellite for the Landsat program, while supporting advancements to Sustained
Land Imaging to enable a commercial solution for Landsat. The request reduces funding for
Earth System Explorers’ Future missions, with planned adjustments to the implementation
schedule for the mission selected for FY26. Additionally, the request reduces funding for Earth
Science Technology, terminating or delaying activities within the Instrument Incubator project
and Advanced Technology Initiatives.
Biological and Physical Sciences: The FY27 budget request for the Biological and Physical
Sciences (BPS) Division is $25 million, a $61 million decrease (70.9%) from FY26 enacted. The
Division supports research in space to obtain insights into how biological and physical systems
function under altered gravity and deep-space radiation. BPS has five goals, which align with the
2023-2032 Decadal Survey, in Quantum Leaps, Precision Health, Space Crops, Foundations, and
Space Labs. Under reduced funding, the budget request focuses support on two new projects:
Exploration Science and Quantum Science. The Exploration Science project supports research
efforts on high-priority activities to support future Moon and Mars missions. Building on organchip research from Artemis II, scientists will use microphysiological systems (tiny models of
human tissue) to study how space conditions affect health. The Quantum Science project funds
the Cold Atom Laboratory, currently conducting experiments on the ISS, along with other
experiments used to further NASA’s understanding of physics and scientific theories.
The Administration’s FY27 budget requests no funding for NASA’s Office of STEM
Engagement (OSTEM). OSTEM manages four projects: National Space Grant College and
Fellowship Project (Space Grant), Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
(EPSCoR), Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP), and Next Generation
STEM project (Next Gen STEM), all proposed to be cut by the request. The request proposes to
use the remaining balances under OSTEM to support the closeout of OSTEM activities.
Join We Power DC, the Energy Democracy Coalition (EDCO), and author Sandeep Vaheesan (Democracy in Power) for a deep dive into the history and future of public power. Learn how movements across the country and in the nation’s capital are reshaping America’s electric grid!
We Power DC is a grassroots coalition of residents and organizations dedicated to replacing DC’s corporate utility monopoly with a publicly owned, democratically controlled electric grid that prioritizes affordability and decarbonization. To learn more, visit: WePowerDC.org
The Energy Democracy Coalition (EDCO) is a nonprofit building a movement for an affordable, accountable, and sustainable electric grid through public education, media, and strategic advocacy campaigns. Their primary focus is developing Shock the Grid, a groundbreaking documentary about the century-long struggle for control of the American electric grid, using history as a lens to explore the most profound question facing humanity: how will we wield our tremendous power? To learn more, visit: EnergyDemocracyCoalition.org
The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006, USA
Floor 2: The Commons Room
The fiscal year 2027 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related
Agencies Appropriations bill, together with advance funding provided in the
fiscal year 2026 bill, provides $481 billion for fiscal year 2027, an increase of $31.9
billion, or 7.1 percent, above current funding levels. Of this amount, discretionary
funding for programs such as veterans’ health care and military construction
totals $157 billion, an increase of $20.2 billion above fiscal year 2026. The bill also
provides advance funding of $445.7 billion for fiscal year 2028 but does not
include $53.7 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund.
The MilCon-VA bill was reported favorably as amended 58 to 0 at 2:30 pm.
The fiscal year 2027 Financial Services and General Government funding bill
includes $25.3 billion, a decrease of $635 million, or 2.4 percent, below the
comparable level for fiscal year 2026, and $1.5 billion, or 6.2 percent, above the
request.
Riders included:
Prohibit DC from implementing more stringent auto emissions standards.
Prohibit the SBA from funding climate change initiatives to help small businesses cut energy costs and reduce carbon pollution.
Prohibit investment options under the Thrift Savings Plan that make investment decisions based on environmental, social, or governance criteria.
Prohibit the procurement of electric vehicles, electric vehicle batteries, electric vehicle charging stations or infrastructure.
Data centers are growing like a second coal industry. Each one may consume a city’s worth of water and electricity - mostly generated by fossil fuels. For example, people in Memphis are breathing polluted air thanks to Elon Musk’s Colossus data center and his Grok AI. In the climate crisis, vulnerable people worldwide will die because of data centers. Through the sheer dominance of their owners, these machines are also becoming a second government of the United States - or replacing the one we thought we knew. DOGE, Pallantir, and OpenAI promise to surveil us, deport us, and send drones to kill unwanted humans. This “techno-state” brings us to the threshold of dystopian sci-fi.
So, we will convene in Washington, DC, the heart of the modern Techno Goliath State, and expose how their data centers are destroying our environment and threatening our democracy. We will begin with a tour of the tech oligarchy where speakers will expose how they are driving the techno-state. Finally, we’ll conclude at the Data Center World Conference, the cabal of industry executives and political enablers, for a rally where we will raise our voices to demand a MORATORIUM ON NEW DATA CENTERS.
We anticipate the action at the Data Center Conference will end at approx. 12:30 pm and be followed by a lunch in Mount Vernon Square (tentative location).
Volunteers are needed; please consider volunteering for an action role listed to the right.
There is also a possibility that we will follow up lunch with a mock people’s assembly on a data centre at Apple Carnegie that will debate a moratorium on data centers. Rally attendees will have an opportunity to sign up to stay on site after lunch and either participate in, or support, the people’s assembly. More details to follow.
Data centers are growing like a second coal industry. Each one may consume a city’s worth of water and electricity - mostly generated by fossil fuels. For example, people in Memphis are breathing polluted air thanks to Elon Musk’s Colossus data center and his Grok AI. In the climate crisis, vulnerable people worldwide will die because of data centers. Through the sheer dominance of their owners, these machines are also becoming a second government of the United States - or replacing the one we thought we knew. DOGE, Pallantir, and OpenAI promise to surveil us, deport us, and send drones to kill unwanted humans. This “techno-state” brings us to the threshold of dystopian sci-fi.