Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

The Trump administration has canceled funding used to coordinate the National Climate Assessment, a major, congressionally mandated U.S. climate change report produced through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).

The National Climate Assessment is published approximately every four years and is the United States’ broadest assessment of current climate change impacts and climate science. 

NASA canceled a contract with ICF International, a consulting firm. ICF International was hired by the agency to support USGRCP’s logistical work and help coordinate the expansive assessment, which involves input from 13 federal agencies and hundreds of authors and contributors.

ICF previously supported the development and release of the Fifth National Climate Assessment and the Fourth National Climate Assessment. 

The change likely means the Sixth National Climate Assessment, planned for publication by early 2028, won’t be completed.

Congress requires the Sixth National Climate Assessment to move forward, but federal officials involved in USGCRP work told Politicothat the assessment is likely dead without the support of ICF International staff. Two dozen staff at the USGCRP will lose the funding to support their roles, Science reported.

The move is not a surprise to those who have been following Trump’s actions on climate change. Russel Vought, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Trump administration, has previously recommended ditching the National Climate Assessment and firing scientists who worked on previous editions of the report.

The cuts come alongside other efforts from the Trump Administration to undermine climate change research including cutting funding to cooperative agreements between U.S. universities and federal agencies to study Earth systems and climate change. 

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

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