Trump administration cannot strip billions in funding from NIH research grants, appeals court affirms
Source: Law & Crime
Jan 7th, 2026, 1:58 pm
The Trump administration may not cut billions of dollars in funding that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides in research grants, a federal appeals court has affirmed.
To do so would be to contravene a provision set up by Congress and violate the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) own regulations stipulating that NIH reimburses "outside entities" based on "actual, documented research costs" rather than via "lump-sum awards," the 38-page order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit reads.
The case began when, on Feb. 7, 2025, NIH issued a "Supplemental Guidance" announcement stating it would begin capping its reimbursement of "indirect costs" associated with NIH-funded research starting the following business day. Three different plaintiff groups, made up of 22 state attorneys general, medical associations, and universities, promptly filed suit.
As the opinion helmed by Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez lays out, recipients of NIH funding are eligible to receive reimbursement of two types of research costs: direct costs and indirect costs. While direct costs are "research costs attributable to a single research project," indirect costs are more complicated.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/congress-went-to-great-lengths-trump-administration-cannot-strip-billions-in-funding-from-nih-research-grants-appeals-court-affirms/
Full headline: 'Congress went to great lengths': Trump administration cannot strip billions in funding from NIH research grants, appeals court affirms
Biden, Clinton, and Shrub judges.
Link to ORDER (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26460554-trump-nih-appeal-order/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26460554/trump-nih-appeal-order.pdf
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https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143379964
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