Judge halts Trump administration cuts to public health research in some states

CNN
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A federal judge on Monday paused cuts that the Trump administration had made to funding for public health research, issuing a temporary restraining order that applies only in the 22 Democratic-led states that brought a lawsuit challenging the reduction in funding.

US District Judge Angel Kelley ordered more briefing in the case, with a hearing scheduled for February 21.

The Democratic attorneys general of 22 states alleged in the lawsuit filed Monday that the newly announced cuts “will mean the abrupt loss of hundreds of millions of dollars that are already committed to employing tens of thousands of researchers and other workers, putting a halt to countless life-saving health research and cutting-edge technology initiatives.”

“Not only that, but the sudden cut of funding will have ripple effects into the private sector as it disrupts numerous partnerships with private institutions,” said the lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts’ federal court.

The complaint added to the pile of quick-moving court proceedings challenging President Donald Trump’s aggressive reshaping of the federal government.

Under the challenged plan, funding from the National Institutes of Health known as indirect cost rates would be capped at 15 percent, from an average of more than 27 percent. Some research institutions, including Harvard, have rates higher than 60%, according to the NIH, which said in a post on X last week that the policy would save more than $4 billion a year.

Those rates are aimed at covering the various overhead costs – like facility costs, regulatory compliance and administrative support – that research institutions must account for to support their research. If the administration’s plans to cut those rates are not halted, the “cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the lawsuit said.

“This is an attempt to eliminate funding that supports medical and public health innovation at every research institution in the country,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said at a news conference Monday. “The administration’s recent directive would abruptly cap indirect costs at 15%, significantly less than what is required to conduct advanced medical research. The administration knows that.”

Campbell noted that the Trump administration had proposed similar cuts in 2017, “and the Republican-controlled Congress at the time passed a law demanding continued stable funding for medical research. That law is still in effect, whether the president believes it or not.”

The attorneys general bringing the case said they expected private research institutions to bring their own lawsuit challenging the administration’s plans, as the states’ lawsuit would cover public research institutions.

NIH’s parent agency, the US Department of Health and Human Services, has the authority to make these changes, its director of communications, Andrew Nixon, told CNN via email – and believes it could even impose them retrospectively “for current grants and require grantees to return the excess overhead they have previously received, but we have currently chosen not to do so to ease the implementation of the new rate; however, we will continue to assess this policy choice and whether it is in the best interest of the American taxpayer.”

“Our Administration wants to help America have the best research in the world, and we believe that by ensuring that more cents on every dollar go directly to science and not to administrative overheard, we can take another step in that direction,” Nixon said.

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, the White House defended the new policy.

“Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated NIH spending away from administrative bloat means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less. The Trump administration is committed to slashing the cottage industry built off of the waste, fraud, and abuse within our mammoth government while prioritizing the needs of everyday Americans,” spokesman Kush Desai said.