How much research funding does the Department of the Interior receive?

Interior had about $641 million in R&D budget authority in fiscal year 2025.

Interior Budget History: Federal Funding 1976–2026

The Department of the Interior manages the public lands, and its science budget follows from that job. The U.S. Geological Survey is the anchor — earthquake monitoring, water resources, mapping, and ecosystem science — joined by the offshore-energy science offices and research inside the National Park Service.

For most of five decades this was one of the steadiest small budgets in government, drifting between roughly $0.7 billion and $1.2 billion in 2017 dollars, with a visible retrenchment in the early 1980s. The recent story is more abrupt: the reported total dropped by nearly half in 2024, from about $1.1 billion to $562 million in 2017 dollars, and kept falling.

Fiscal year 2025 came in at $641 million in current dollars. The 2026 figure of $354 million is the estimate from the White House budget request. Congress has since enacted the FY 2026 budget; the budget-cycle section below shows where the U.S. Geological Survey's accounts landed.

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.

Account	FY 2026 enacted	FY 2027 request	Change
Ecosystems	$295M	$0M	-100%
Water Resources	$289M	$227M	-21.4%
Core Science Systems	$276M	$157M	-43.2%
Natural Hazards	$200M	$137M	-31.8%
Energy and Minerals	$105M	$142M	+36.1%
Science Support	$74M	$80M	+8.6%
USGS Total	$1.4B	$893M	-37.2%

See the full appropriations tracker across every agency

Budget history

Interior's science budget has drifted between roughly $0.7 and $1.2 billion in 2017 dollars for five decades — until the reported total nearly halved in 2024.

The Interior 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

1982 — Early-1980s retrenchment. The science budget falls by about a quarter in real terms from its late-1970s level.
2024 — Reported total nearly halves. The reported science budget drops from about $1.1 billion to $562 million in 2017 dollars.

See the numbers behind this chart

Interior 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	325	1,131	0.018%
1977	327	1,061	0.016%
1978	363	1,104	0.016%
1979	410	1,153	0.016%
1980	410	1,061	0.015%
1981	412	971	0.013%
1982	385	848	0.012%
1983	388	818	0.011%
1984	364	741	0.009%
1985	389	767	0.009%
1986	383	739	0.008%
1987	408	770	0.009%
1988	426	778	0.008%
1989	480	842	0.009%
1990	531	899	0.009%
1991	620	1,014	0.01%
1992	643	1,026	0.01%
1993	649	1,012	0.01%
1994	708	1,080	0.01%
1995	668	998	0.009%
1996	571	838	0.007%
1997	591	852	0.007%
1998	536	762	0.006%
1999	499	702	0.005%
2000	618	851	0.006%
2001	621	835	0.006%
2002	623	825	0.006%
2003	643	835	0.006%
2004	627	795	0.005%
2005	621	764	0.005%
2006	639	762	0.005%
2007	647	750	0.005%
2008	683	776	0.005%
2009	702	789	0.005%
2010	776	865	0.005%
2011	757	827	0.005%
2012	820	880	0.005%
2013	785	828	0.005%
2014	840	870	0.005%
2015	864	885	0.005%
2016	973	989	0.005%
2017	941	941	0.005%
2018	872	854	0.004%
2019	958	920	0.005%
2020	1,043	989	0.005%
2021	1,009	925	0.004%
2022	1,140	977	0.005%
2023	1,296	1,062	0.005%
2024	704	562	0.002%
2025	641	500	0.002%
2026est.	354	271	0.001%

Where the money goes

The U.S. Geological Survey is the department's main science engine.

The major Interior 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 estimateBOEM-OEMBSEE-OSEENPS-OperationU.S. Geological Survey