WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has been obstructing the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) for weeks by blocking the process for issuing new research grants. These grants cover a range of critical areas, from Lyme disease to lung and heart disease, according to researchers, a departing NIH official, and official documents.
The administration has utilized a loophole to delay funding, instructing the NIH not to publish grant meeting notices in the Federal Register, an essential step in the approval process. This has impacted the NIH's two-step grant-making process, which involves preliminary reviews by external experts and a final review for grant approval.
On Monday, the NIH announced it would allow the publication of some preliminary meeting notices in the Federal Register. However, an internal NIH website still prohibits the publication by grant review committees, known as advisory councils, which remain on hold. This hold was initially reported by the Transmitter and Nature.
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser, have aimed to significantly reduce government spending, including the $47 billion annual NIH budget. The NIH had announced on February 7 its intention to cut grant funding to research organizations like universities and hospitals. However, this plan was blocked by a U.S. judge's order on February 10, which has since been extended.
Despite the court order allowing normal operations, the NIH continues to face barriers, according to Nate Brought, who resigned as Director of NIH's Office of the Executive Secretariat partly due to the delay in publication of meeting notices. Since January 21, no NIH meeting notices have been published, a search of the Federal Register revealed.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray from Washington, a senior member of the Senate's health committee, declared the hold illegal in a February 21 press release. She criticized Trump and Musk for suffocating cancer research with excessive red tape, risking the shutdown of labs and clinical trials.
According to an NIH spokesperson, scientific review group meeting notices may be published incrementally in the Federal Register. However, the publication of other notices, including those by advisory councils, remains on hold. An HHS spokesperson declined to comment. Meetings already published are still taking place, as per an internal email seen by Reuters.
Brian Stevenson, a microbiology professor at the University of Kentucky, studies Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium causing Lyme disease. His three grants were set for preliminary expert review last week but were canceled. Without funding, Stevenson may have to close his lab by the end of the year, jeopardizing his graduate students' futures.
Suzanne Judd, director of the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, is part of a 4,600-person study examining heart and lung disease rates in rural areas. The $35 million study, running since 2019, may have to pause without renewed funding. The study employs about 50 scientists and research technicians across 16 universities.
The typical NIH grant approval process takes about three quarters of a year, with only three funding cycles per year, stated Carole LaBonne, a professor at Northwestern University. If the Federal Register prohibition continues, it could affect the third grant cycle starting in May. Unspent money by the fiscal year-end on September 30 will be lost.
In conclusion, the current administration's actions have effectively paralyzed a significant portion of the NIH's operations, hindering critical research across the nation.
