Jerry Moran

Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, chairs the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Subcommittee, the body that writes NASA's actual budget. On 13 April 2026 he told the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs that the White House FY2027 proposal to cut NASA by 26 per cent was "a mistake," and that his subcommittee intends to fund the agency at roughly the FY2026 enacted level of $24.438 billion rather than the White House request of $18.8 billion. He also confirmed his subcommittee has formally scheduled NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman for testimony, the first accountability hearing on the 47% Science Mission Directorate cut Isaacman publicly endorsed.

Moran has represented Kansas in the Senate since 2011, previously serving in the House from 1997. He has been CJS Subcommittee chair since the Republican majority returned in 2023, giving him authority over appropriations for Commerce, Justice, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Kansas has no NASA centre, so his opposition to the science cuts is programmatic rather than parochial: he has framed it as a question of predictability and long-term programme stability rather than constituency protection.

With a Republican NASA chief endorsing a Republican White House budget, Moran's opposition is the first formal intraparty split on the FY2027 request. His committee writes the markup number that anchors the House-Senate conference, meaning his $24.4 billion baseline becomes the ceiling from which negotiations descend, not the floor the administration was expecting to defend.