The White House is reportedly drafting an executive order that would create an external committee empowered to veto National Institutes of Health research grants that conflict with President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, The Washington Post first reported Sept. 18.
The order, being drafted by the Office of Management and Budget, was discussed at a Sept. 18 Oval Office meeting, The New York Times reported.
President Donald Trump was present at the meeting in which leaders discussed whether the NIH has done enough to impose the administration’s policy agenda onto academia, two administration officials told the Times.
The session comes after months of conflict between OMB Director Russell Vought, who wants tighter political control over NIH grant approvals, and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, who has resisted those efforts.
NIH spokesperson Joshua Pradko declined to discuss the meeting but pushed back on reports that Mr. Vought wants to rescind NIH funding. “There will be no rescissions to NIH grant monies. All NIH grant monies will be spent,” Mr. Pradko told the Times.
President Trump also used the meeting to criticize his administration’s failure to reach a deal with Harvard University. The White House has lost two lawsuits to the university, including a ruling that blocked cuts to its existing federal research grants. The government plans to appeal.
Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit on Sept. 16 in California district court on behalf of researchers studying health disparities, Alzheimer’s disease and sexual harassment, arguing that NIH grant screening for compliance with political priorities violates scientists’ First Amendment rights.
The NIH distributes most of its $48 billion budget to research labs nationwide, and has historically selected projects through expert review of scientific merit.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America opposed the plan to create an external review committee in a Sept. 21 statement shared with Becker’s.
“Decisions regarding the tens of billions of federal dollars invested in medical research belong in the hands of scientific experts who can evaluate the most pressing patient and public health needs and the merit of the grant request,” wrote IDSA President Ronald Nahass, MD, and Anna Person, MD, chair of the society’s HIV Medicine Association.
“Politicizing a process that is intended to improve the lives of all Americans and protect our nation’s public health will have far reaching consequences for the health and security of our nation,” they wrote. “We urge the Administration to reconsider the proposal and call on Congress to prevent politics from impeding medical progress by ensuring NIH funding is spent as intended for the benefit of all Americans.”
