American Innovation Act

Summary

Provides multi-year, rising funding levels for major federal research programs, specifying annual appropriation amounts for fiscal years 2026–2035 and creating CPI-U–based automatic increases beginning in FY2036 for some accounts. The legislation lists fixed dollar amounts for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, Department of Defense science and technology programs, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, among others, and makes these funds available as annual discretionary appropriations.

• Specifies fixed annual appropriations for major federal research accounts for FY2026–FY2035.
• Provides rising funding levels for NSF, DOE Office of Science, DOD S&T programs, and NIST over the 10-year window.
• Introduces CPI-U–based automatic increases beginning in FY2036 for selected accounts, tying future funding to inflation.
• Designates funds as annual discretionary appropriations (federal budget authority subject to enactment and execution).
• Targets civilian and defense research investments—supporting grants, contracts, national labs, and research infrastructure.
• Does not change tax law, create explicit state/local mandates, or include emergency-designated spending in the provided text.
• Automatic indexing could reduce the need for annual funding increases but may be politically sensitive because it creates inflation-linked growth.
• Direct impacts likely flow to researchers, universities, federal research staff, industry contractors, and technology sectors.