How much research funding does the Department of Commerce receive?

Commerce had about $3.9 billion in R&D budget authority in fiscal year 2025. For fiscal year 2026, Congress enacted about $3.7 billion.

Commerce Budget History: Federal Funding 1976–2026

The Department of Commerce sounds like an odd place to find science funding, but it houses two serious research agencies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) runs the country's weather forecasting, satellites, and ocean science. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the government's measurement lab — the place that defines the second, the kilogram, and the standards behind everything from encryption to earthquake-resistant buildings.

For most of its history this was a small budget: research and development (R&D) at Commerce began at $231 million in 1976 and stayed under about $1 billion a year in 2017 dollars until the early 1990s, when technology programs at NIST stepped it up. Then came the sharpest move in the whole series. In 2022, as CHIPS and Science Act money arrived, the department's inflation-adjusted R&D jumped from about $1.9 billion to about $6.9 billion — more than tripling in one year.

That surge is now unwinding toward a higher baseline than before: about $3.9 billion in fiscal year 2025. The 2026 figure of roughly $3.1 billion is the estimate from the White House budget request; the enacted FY 2026 appropriation landed higher, at about $3.7 billion in R&D. The budget-cycle section below shows how it moved through Congress.

The current budget cycle: FY 2026 enacted, FY 2027 requested

What Congress enacted for fiscal year 2026 and what the White House has requested for FY 2027, account by account. Budget authority in millions of dollars.

The research and development share of this budget — as estimated by AAAS, excluding non-R&D activities in these accounts — came to $3.7B enacted for FY 2026 · $1.8B requested for FY 2027 (-51%).

Account	FY 2026 enacted	FY 2027 request	Change
NIST
NIST Labs	$1.2B	$729M	-41.6%
Industrial Tech Services	$212M	$37M	-82.5%
Total	$1.8B	$854M	-53.8%
NOAA
Weather Satellites	$1.7B	$1.6B	-5.4%
OAR: Weather and Air Chemistry Research	$253M	$0M	-100%
OAR: Climate Research	$224M	$0M	-100%
OAR: Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research	$94M	$0M	-100%
OAR: High Performance Computing Initiatives	$63M	$0M	-100%
Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research (OAR)	$0M	$6.1B	—
NOAA Total	$6.2B	$4.5B	-27.9%

See the full appropriations tracker across every agency

Budget history

Commerce research spending more than tripled in real terms in a single year — 2022 — when CHIPS and Science Act money arrived.

The Commerce research and development (R&D) budget, every fiscal year on record.

Millions of constant 2017 dollars — adjusted for inflationFY 2026: budget-request estimate

Source: AAAS Historical R&D Data · as of 2025-10-23

1993 — NIST technology programs expand. Early-1990s technology initiatives step the budget up from its long sub-$1 billion plateau.
2022 — CHIPS and Science Act era. Semiconductor and science funding more than triples the department's real-terms R&D in a single year.

See the numbers behind this chart

Commerce research and development (R&D) budget by fiscal year. Dollar values in millions; source AAAS Historical R&D Data.
Fiscal year	Nominal dollars	Constant 2017 dollars	R&D share of GDP
1976	231	804	0.013%
1977	253	821	0.012%
1978	281	854	0.012%
1979	332	934	0.013%
1980	358	926	0.013%
1981	345	813	0.011%
1982	308	679	0.009%
1983	325	686	0.009%
1984	363	740	0.009%
1985	392	772	0.009%
1986	395	762	0.009%
1987	417	787	0.009%
1988	410	748	0.008%
1989	427	749	0.008%
1990	453	767	0.008%
1991	537	878	0.009%
1992	583	931	0.009%
1993	793	1,237	0.012%
1994	1,022	1,559	0.014%
1995	1,118	1,671	0.015%
1996	992	1,455	0.012%
1997	964	1,389	0.011%
1998	1,091	1,553	0.012%
1999	1,084	1,524	0.011%
2000	1,174	1,617	0.012%
2001	1,030	1,385	0.01%
2002	1,227	1,624	0.011%
2003	1,197	1,555	0.011%
2004	1,120	1,420	0.009%
2005	1,121	1,380	0.009%
2006	1,062	1,266	0.008%
2007	1,073	1,244	0.007%
2008	1,188	1,350	0.008%
2009	1,389	1,562	0.01%
2010	1,337	1,491	0.009%
2011	1,217	1,331	0.008%
2012	1,254	1,346	0.008%
2013	1,297	1,368	0.008%
2014	1,552	1,607	0.009%
2015	1,527	1,565	0.008%
2016	1,675	1,703	0.009%
2017	1,796	1,796	0.009%
2018	2,064	2,019	0.01%
2019	1,957	1,880	0.009%
2020	1,958	1,857	0.009%
2021	2,110	1,934	0.009%
2022	8,043	6,890	0.032%
2023	5,141	4,212	0.019%
2024	4,307	3,437	0.015%
2025	3,883	3,032	0.013%
2026est.	3,138	2,400	0.01%

Where the money goes

Two agencies carry Commerce's science budget: NOAA for weather and oceans, NIST for measurement and standards.

The major Commerce budget lines tracked by AAAS. These are appropriations accounts — they overlap the budget-history series but are not an exact decomposition of it.

Millions of constant 2017 dollars — adjusted for inflationFY 2026: budget-request estimateNational Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Institute of Standards and Technology