The White House has dropped plans for an executive order that would have given federal officials greater authority over grantmaking at the National Institutes of Health, Roll Call reported Sept. 23, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The order, being drafted by the Office of Management and Budget, would have created an external committee empowered to veto research grants that conflict with President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, according to The New York Times.
The Washington Post first reported news of the administration’s push for greater oversight Sept. 18.
White House officials reportedly met earlier this week to discuss the potential order, which quickly drew pushback from key Senate appropriators.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter Sept. 22 to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, and OMB Director Russ Vought urging them not to move forward. Ms. Collins said federal biomedical research funding should rest on scientific merit rather than political ideology and added that the administration should send any NIH reform ideas to Congress as legislation.
The executive order idea followed OMB’s May proposal to require political appointees to review discretionary grants for alignment with presidential priorities and would expand agencies’ ability to end grants already underway if they do not align with administrative priorities or national interests.
President Trump signed a continuing resolution Sept. 2, which funds the government through mid-December and delays implementation of that rule. Ms. Collins noted the executive order would undermine this provision in the resolution.
The White House did not immediately respond to Roll Call’s request for comment.
