President Donald Trump signed an executive order Aug. 7 that gives political appointees oversight of all federally funded grants.
The order aims to ensure award decisions undergo “more rigorous evaluation by political appointees and subject matter experts,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
Four things to know:
1. The order, titled “Improving Oversight of Federal Grant Making” directs each agency head to designate a senior appointee to develop a process for reviewing grant opportunities and ensure they are awarded to projects “consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”
2. It also allows for the termination of future grants and directs appointees to give preference to institutions with lower indirect cost rates. The order points to past federally funded research on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, gender-related education programs and services for undocumented immigrants as examples of “wasteful grants” that could be cut if deemed inconsistent with administration priorities.
3. The move comes amid broader disruption to the nation’s biomedical research infrastructure. More than 2,100 grants from the National Institutes of Health have been terminated since January, following a series of executive orders from President Trump that aimed to curb federal funding for programs related to DEI and gender.
4. The Association of American Medical Colleges condemned the move, saying political involvement in the grant process could stifle scientific progress. The order is likely to be challenged in court, experts told the Associated Press.
“This misguided order will slow progress for cures and treatments that patients and families across the country urgently need by delaying critical research with problematic political and bureaucratic hurdles,” the AAMC said in a statement. “The order will create significant bureaucratic bottlenecks in the grant review and approval process, slowing the pace of innovation and introducing political preferences as part of the approval process.”
