Trump Administration Halts NIH From Issuing Any New Research Grants
Things just got even tougher for science and scientists around the country and the countless patients and other people that their research could eventually benefit. For the past several months, many researchers in the U.S. have already had to deal with kind of a 'cancel culture' with their grants from the National Institutes of Health being abruptly held, cut or terminated if certain words, phrases or concepts appeared in them that didn't correspond with what the Trump Administration wanted. And now the Trump Administration is putting an immediate 'pause' on the NIH's ability to issue any new research grants, contracts or training awards to anyone outside the NIH.
The OMB Blocks The NIH From Providing New Funding
Yep, Angus Chen, Megan Molteni, and Anil Oza just reported for STAT how this directive came out of the White House Office of Management and Budget and was delivered as a four-sentence email to the directors of NIH institutes and centers on Tuesday afternoon. The email referred to a 'footnote' from the OMB regarding funding for the NIH and indicated that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 'has interpreted this footnote' to mean that new funding from the NIH would be prohibited for now but the NIH is 'working to make this limitation short-term and temporary.' That footnote could end up being quite a kick to the rears of grantees, awardees and contractors in universities, medical centers and other research organizations around the country.
It looks like any researcher expecting to receive funds from the NIH through either new awards or renewals of current awards may have to wait for it, wait for it, wait until who knows what needs to happen. Neither the OMB nor the NIH have clarified what will happen and what needs to happen to make funding available again. (I am reaching out to contacts at HHS and NIH for further comment.) This situation basically further handcuffs the NIH's ability to use money that Congress already allocated to the NIH to use this fiscal year. It's kind of like of your parents giving you an allowance and then someone else saying, 'Oh you can't use that.'
NIH Employees Prohibited From Spending Money On Purchases Or Travel
The OMB footnote will do some further kicking to those working within the NIH as well. That is those still working within the NIH. Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, there have been multiple waves of different Rs at the NIH. And these Rs haven't exactly been rest and relaxation. They've been rounds of resignations, retirements and RIFs—meaning reductions in force. The remaining NIH employees will reportedly not be able to spend any more money on purchases or travel until the end of the current government fiscal year, which will be September 30.
Unspent NIH Funds Would Return To The U.S. Treasury After September 30
Speaking of the government fiscal year. Being only two months away from its end raises an even bigger concern. If this situation isn't 'short-term' and 'temporary' enough, it could soon become quite permanent. Once September 30 passes, money unspent by the NIH would automatically go back to the U.S. Treasury. So, in two months, researchers might have to sing 'bye-bye-bye' to the funding they thought they would receive. That certanly wouldn't be in sync with any of their staffing and scientific plans. This so-called 'temporary' situation could be a way of cutting NIH funding in a manner that bypasses Congress. This office of Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) has estimated that the funds currently hanging in the balance may total around $15 billion.
NIH Funding Halt May Cause Even More Job Loss
I've written previously in Forbes about how the cutting and canceling of research grants will cause job loss. Unless we've entered some other world in the multi-verse, that still hold. Many scientists depend on NIH funding to pay their own salaries and fringe benefits as well those of their research staffs. When it's not clear when and if expected funding will arrive, there's only so long researchers can hold on, in the words of Wilson Phillips, before they have to lay off people or even lose their own positions.
And once a researcher or research staff member is lost, it can be tough to replace them. It's not as if you are simply looking for something to post something dumb on social media or be featured in the reality TV show 'Cheaters.' The U.S. doesn't have an unlimited supply of those with appropriate scientific talent, skills and drive. It can take a lot of time to find someone with the right stuff to fill a position. You can't simply tell the coaches or managers of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Eagles or Oklahoma City Thunder, 'Yeah, we know that you have been sort of successful. But we won't allow you to pay your players, so you are going to have to cut them. Oh, but don't worry, some day when you do have money, we aren't saying when and how, you can always find new players.'
NIH Funding Halt Will Have Widespread Ramifcations On Health And The Economy
If you don't do any scientific research and think this NIH funding halt won't affect you, think again. It's not as if the NIH funded researchers out there are spending their days posting random rants on social media. They are working hard, often day and night, on ways to prevent and treat different disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and a whole range of different infectious diseases, including those that may cause the 'p' word some day. Who knows how many lives will end being affected by these interruptions, disruptions and stoppages of such work? And no matter how healthy you think you are right now, no matter how much kombucha, eyes of newt or whatever you are consuming right now, you will run into health problems some day. You, your family members and your friends will.
Trying to keep as many Americans as healthy as possible shouldn't be a political thing. More Americans being healthy longer would mean more Americans to work and produce for society longer. That should be a win-win situation. Or a win-win-win situation. More legit biomedical and health research as opposed to more let's-just-say-it-happens-woo-woo should help the economy as well. More science-backed stuff would mean more stable and sustainable health products and interventions that can form the basis of more sustainable businesses.
Yet, this 'pause' in NIH funding is yet another blow to science, scientific research and all of the above. It should give everyone pause to think about what's really important for this country and whether things are headed in the right direction in U.S. After all, this latest 'temporary' situation with NIH may not end up being temporary at all.
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