Congress is moving forward with reversing many of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget cuts, particularly to science-related federal agencies and grant programs. For example, the House and Senate have agreed not only to restore Trump’s reductions of nearly 40 percent to the National Institut es of Health budget, but added a slight increase. Spending for the National Science Foundation and NASA’s science research budget would remain essentially flat from the previous year, instead of planned cuts of 57 percent and 47 percent, respectively. Funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, targeted for a 27 percent cut,  was also restored and its satellite program that Trump wanted to eliminate also would be saved. The congressional funding boosts staffing at the National Weather Service, which also faced deep cuts. Overall, spending on research and development that is not related to national defense is projected to decline by 3 percent to 7 percent, far less than the 33 percent cut sought by Trump, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Republicans and Democrats reached compromises on numerous bills that spare a sweeping array of federal programs from Trump’s deep cuts — from foreign aid to social services to the Internal Revenue Service — to avoid another government shutdown at the end of January amid election-year political pressures. The Trump administration has indicated the president will support at least some of the bills, which makes sense because Republicans in Congress would be unlikely to move forward if he was opposed. The reversal of science funding cuts was welcome in Sorrento Valley, San Diego’s biotech and life sciences hub, and at the region’s premier research institutes, such as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. But any celebrations were likely somewhat muted. “I would say the headwinds still exist,” said Tim Scott, president and CEO of San Diego’s Biocom, which advocates for California’s life sciences industry, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies, among others. It wasn’t just the proposed cuts that lingered for nearly a year, but Trump’s unpredictable trade and tariff gyrations also “created a lot of uncertainty in the industry,” Scott said. Despite congressional action, that uncertainty remains. Investors turned reluctant some time ago, and regulating agencies like the Food and Drug Administration were upended, providing little detail on where they were headed. Scott said some 10,000 employees were cut from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, though some of its agencies are starting to hire people back. The life sciences industry in San Diego has been in retrenchment for at least a year, characterized by announcements of regular layoffs and reports of a glut of lab space. This is not unique to San Diego. Interestingly, the recent sale of the Embassy Suites by Hilton San Diego La Jolla may have underscored the status of the life sciences industry. BioMed Realty, a San Diego firm that is focused on life science and technology industries, sold the property for just over half the purchase price four years earlier, according to Lori Weisberg of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “At the time of the (previous) acquisition, the speculation was that BioMed might want to redevelop a portion of the hotel given the high demand then for life science lab space,” Weisberg wrote. A big contributor to the uncertain climate is the Trump administration’s pressure to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The president has already cut deals with several companies to tamp down prices, and Scott said legislation pushing the issue is pending in Congress. What ultimately happens with the broader industry can further affect pharmaceutical companies’ bottom line and the health-related research entities. “What’s the plan moving forward?” Scott said regarding prescription drug pricing. He added wryly that this is “a unique point in time where Bernie Sanders and President Trump are on the same side.” It’s not just businesses — educational institutions have also been affected. Though some funding has been restored, delays took a toll and uncertainty remains. “It’s so significant that universities, including UCSD, cut back their graduate enrollments,” Scott said. “. . . The effect on biomed research across the country is pretty dramatic.” “That affects our whole community.” Nevertheless, he called the action by Congress “encouraging.” “So there is pushback,” he added.  The pushback is largely fueled by the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate to block the funding bills needed to keep the government open if some of the Trump cuts are not restored. Nobody wants another shutdown, least of all Republicans who hold majorities in the House and Senate and control the White House. Like other industries, Scott said the life sciences are used to dealing with changes in administrations and shifts in policy. But once that occurs, there’s usually a greater sense of consistency than what is happening under Trump. “There’s a baseline level of noise that we have gotten used to,” he said. He added that the industry needs to get to the point where “the uncertainty is manageable. Then you can move forward.” A challenge has been finding an atmosphere “from a financial situation where investors are getting back in the game.” Then there’s the hope for more stability in the regulatory world. “There’s lots of things we need to work through,” he said Congress needs to approve the funding bills before a Jan. 30 shutdown deadline. That’s also the deadline for reauthorization of funding sought by the life sciences industry and all sorts of private and public interests and agencies. Scott said Biocom representatives in the nation’s capital are negotiating and lobbying on the funding packages. “So we’re kind of in the thick of it,” Scott said. What they said Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) “The emperor has no clothes. There, I said it.” ...read more read less