Overview
- Federal laboratories have largely gone quiet with tens of thousands of government scientists furloughed or unpaid in the fifth week of the shutdown.
- Agencies including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health have paused new grant opportunities and peer review, and many data collections have stopped.
- The White House redirected unspent research money in mid‑October to cover military pay, a move analysts say challenges Congress’s constitutional power over appropriations.
- Administration statements include threats to fire 10,000 additional civil servants, to withhold back pay, and to terminate programs judged not aligned with the President’s priorities.
- Past shutdowns left months-long backlogs, and analysts say the current lapse combined with declining international enrollment, research-security measures, and financial strain at universities risks longer-term harm to U.S. competitiveness.