Congress has blocked federal agencies from imposing dramatic cuts to university indirect-cost reimbursements for the next fiscal year, preserving negotiated overhead rates that fund campus research infrastructure. The provision, tucked into recent bills signed by the president, halts a controversial agency proposal to cap indirect costs at a much lower flat rate—an idea that had threatened billions in campus research funding and prompted multiple lawsuits. Policy makers and research leaders called the legislative action a temporary reprieve that buys time for negotiations. Universities now have a year to press for a longer-term solution; researchers and university finance officers remain focused on protecting facilities, utilities, and administrative costs essential to sustaining federally funded science.