Of the $400 million in federal funding cut from Columbia University in March, $250 million was tied to National Institutes of Health grants, leaving researchers reassessing which studies and programs will continue, The New York Times reported March 18.
The $400 million in cuts were announced by the White House on March 7. The NIH detailed the research cuts March 10, citing directives from the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
“The cancellations are due to Columbia University’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” the NIH wrote in a March 10 post on X.
More than 400 NIH grants were terminated, including numerous large-scale studies involving other universities. The cuts have put dozens of studies on topics such as cancer, diabetes and pediatric care in jeopardy, with researchers scrambling for alternative funding. The abrupt change to funding has created confusion among researchers and physicians at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons — the university’s medical school located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City — who are still working to determine precisely which projects have lost funding.
Beyond research, the White House ended funding for physician fellowship programs in oncology and other specialty fields, as well as grants for hiring research nurses and clinical trial staff, according to the Times.
The university’s funding loss comes as academic medical centers, medical schools and research institutions nationwide face significant clinical and operational hurdles amid the White House’s attempt to pause agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs.
Four more federal health updates:
1. White House mulls cuts to HIV prevention: The White House is weighing plans to dismantle the CDC’s Division on HIV Prevention and potentially shift its responsibilities to another program within HHS, according to reports from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal. The $1.3 billion division is responsible for tracking infections across the country and promoting testing and prevention, namely the use of the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEp. The department funds prevention efforts at the state and local levels and has been in place since the early 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic emerged.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering a $700 million cut to the division’s federal funding, or moving its work to The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which serves individuals who have been diagnosed with HIV and is overseen by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. HHS has said “no final decision” on the division’s future has been made.
“HHS is following the Administration’s guidance and taking a careful look at all divisions to see where there is overlap that could be streamlined to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure the federal government,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News. “This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard.
2. HHS to reinstate fired workers: A judge has ordered HHS to reinstate 3,248 probationary employees who were terminated in February as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Most reinstated employees have been placed on administrative leave and are receiving full pay and benefits, according to court filings federal agencies submitted March 17. Those filings were submitted to comply with orders from two federal judges directing the administration to reinstate probationary employees across 18 agencies.
The documents submitted by federal agencies offered the first official look at how many employees lost their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary workers, according to CBS News and NBC News. Three CDC probationary workers affected by the job cuts said they had not received correspondence regarding reinstatements from the federal government as of March 18, according to NBC News.
3. Judge rules USAID cuts by DOGE likely violated Constitution. U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang has ruled that Elon Musk and the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, which Mr. Musk leads, likely violated the Constitution when they moved to close the U.S. Agency for International Development, CBS News reported March 19.
In late January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order led by Mr. Musk and DOGE to freeze all foreign aid, which resulted in USAID implementing a stop work order and pulling financial support. Only 294 workers out of more than 10,000 USAID employees were to keep their jobs.
In the 68-page decision, Mr. Chuang ruled in favor of the more than 24 existing and former USAID contractors and employees who challenged the push to close the agency. He said Mr. Musk and DOGE violated the Constitution’s appointments clause and separation of powers and ordered a reinstatement of payment, email and other electronic systems access to existing USAID employees and personal services contractors. The judge also prevented DOGE from shutting down USAID, including closing its buildings, bureaus or offices, deleting website or collection contents and firing or putting agency employees on administrative leave, CBS News reported.
4. HHS removes gun violence as a public health crisis. HHS has removed a webpage from former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, that declared gun violence in America a public health crisis.
Dr. Murthy issued the 32-page advisory in June, which covered the growing toll of gun violence in the U.S. over the years. While the advisory itself has been removed, a news release on Dr. Murthy’s guidance remains archived.
“I’ve long believed this is a public health issue,” Mr. Murthy said in a June interview with The New York Times. “This issue has been politicized, has been polarized over time. But I think when we understand that this is a public health issue, we have the opportunity to take it out of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health.”
President Trump nominated Janette Nesheiwat, MD, as surgeon general in November. Her confirmation hearing has not been scheduled, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Meanwhile, HHS on March 18 renewed the nation’s public health emergency declaration for the opioid crisis, extending key federal flexibilities for 90 days. The PHE, initially declared by President Trump during his first term, was set to expire March 21.
