President’s FY2026 Budget Request Puts Big Bets on Tech

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget released its 2026 budget request on Friday morning, with major cuts to non-defense discretionary funding while maintaining investment in emerging technologies. The request calls for a $163 billion cut, 22.6% from 2025 levels, affecting civilian agencies including the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security and others.

According to a fact sheet released with the request, the White House is reorienting funding toward emerging technologies by “funding for research in artificial intelligence and quantum information science at key agencies, to ensure the United States remains on the cutting edge of these critical technologies’ development and responsible use.” The fact sheet also notes that the request calls for increased use of AI at Social Security to reduce waste, fraud and abuse at the agency.

OMB chief Russ Vought, in a letter accompanying the document, wrote that the request is the result of a “line-by-line review of FY 2025 spending” to refocus spending to “generate trillions in savings.”

Other agency technology initiatives in the White House budget request include:

Veterans Affairs

The document calls for an overall increase in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs, with $5.4 billion allocated for medical care and electronic health record modernization.

The agency’s broader IT infrastructure faces a potential $493 million cut in the document. According to the request, “VA has over 1,000 distinct IT systems, including many legacy systems, some of which are decades old.” The budget document also calls for a pause on procurement until a “full review” by the Department of Government Efficiency is completed.

The document calls for an increase of an $2.173 billion boost to the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization to move it from a decades-old legacy system to a modern system that is interoperable with the Defense Department and other federal partners.” The document also says that the VA EHRM rollout is “a top priority effort.”

Energy

The budget calls for a shift of Department of Energy funding toward the advancement of domestic fossil fuel technologies and critical mineral production, while supporting the development of nuclear fuel, reactors and associated tech.

The request cuts $260 million from Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency ‒ Energy (ARPA-E), saying that the request calls for “a fiscally responsible level for high risk, high reward research advancing reliable energy technologies and other critical and emerging technologies.”

The document also calls for $1.148 billion cut from the Office of Science, though the document says that the slimmer budget will focuses “U.S. competitiveness in priority areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, fusion, and critical minerals.”

Health and Human Services

The administration calls for a $500 million boost to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) to tackle the initiative’s priority areas, including “nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.”

However, the department faces cuts across the National Institute of Health, with a proposed a $17.965 billion cut, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs, with a proposed $3.588 billion cut, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) program management, with a proposed $674 million cut. The document states the CMS cut will not impact benefits.

Homeland Security

The White House calls for a $42.3 billion increase in funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The document says that the increase will partially boost border operations, including “advanced border security technology” and the money will further be used to “modernize the fleet and facilities of the Coast Guard.”

CISA

The request calls for a $491 million cut to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s budget to “[refocus] CISA on its core mission — federal network defense and enhancing the security and resilience of critical infrastructure — while eliminating weaponization and waste.”

Defense

Despite DOGE-aligned threats of cuts, the document increases Pentagon spending by 13 percent ($113.3 billion). The document calls for technology like developing the Golden Dome missile defense system, expanding U.S. shipbuilding capacity and funding further “U.S. space dominance to strengthen U.S. national security and strategic advantage.”

NASA

The request calls for an overall $6 billion cut to NASA programs. According to the fact sheet, the request adds “$7 billion for lunar exploration” and $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs” as space exploration focuses. To achieve these objectives, the document says, the White House wants to cut “the NASA workforce, information technology services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance and construction and environmental compliance activities.”