When President Donald Trump outlined his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, it was seen as a grim day for science in America.

The president called for a cut of $5.8 billion, or 18 percent, from current funding for the National Institutes of Health, the worlds foremost funder of biomedical research. That would have brought NIH funding to its lowest level in 15 years. If that wasnt dire enough, Trump went further. In addition to that 10-year budget plan, he called for axing $1.2 billion in NIH funding for the upcoming year.

Advocates warned that the reductions would all but freeze the NIH grant process, dramatically risking Americas position as a global leader in science.

Now, weeks later, those same advocates are brimming.

On Sunday night, lawmakers came to an agreement on a bill to fund the government through September. And instead of steep cuts to NIH, lawmakers increased funding by $2 billion over fiscal 2016. The $34.1 billion in NIH funding is more than during any year of the Obama administration.

This is the best scenario we could have hoped for, said Benjamin Corb, director of public affairs at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The budget deal reached by Congress is a massive rebuke of Trumps domestic priorities. The bill includes no funding for his beloved border wall with Mexico, keeps funds in place for Planned Parenthood , and largely maintains spending for the Environmental Protection Agency. But among the provisions in the text, the upping of the NIH budget may be the most remarkable, not just because it comes in the midst of immense fear among the science community over Trumps policies, but because it exemplifies just how little influence Trump enjoys within the halls of Congress.