Trump Orders Board to Control $48 Billion NIH Grants as Harvard Funding Fight Deepens
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Sep 21
Trump Orders Board to Control $48 Billion NIH Grants as Harvard Funding Fight Deepens
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Sep 21
Summary
Trump told budget chief Russ Vought on Friday to draft an executive order creating a board to decide which NIH grants are funded, according to two administration officials.
The push came after NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya refused Trump's request to cut Harvard's funding, forcing the White House to seek another route to influence grant awards.
Vought and Bhattacharya would sit on the proposed board, which officials said would have to make unanimous decisions on grants across the NIH's $48 billion budget.
Congress already moved this month to temporarily block a Vought plan giving political appointees control over federal health grants, signaling bipartisan resistance to politicizing NIH funding.
The latest clash extends Trump's effort to target Harvard after the administration previously tried to block $2.6 billion in grants and lost in court.
Could a new executive board fundamentally alter which medical breakthroughs receive federal funding in the coming years?
Will removing numerical scores from NIH grant reviews increase transparency or silently shift power to non-scientific reviewers?
The 2025–2026 NIH Grant Freeze: How Political Crackdowns Cut 7,800 Research Projects, Triggered a Brain Drain, and Threaten U.S. Biomedical Leadership
Overview
In early 2025, the Trump administration rapidly imposed executive orders that silenced federal science agencies and froze or cut thousands of NIH and NSF grants, especially targeting diversity and health disparity research. This sudden funding disruption led to halted clinical trials, job losses, and a sharp decline in graduate admissions at top universities, fueling a wave of U.S. scientists seeking jobs abroad as international competitors offered attractive recruitment packages. As universities and lawmakers pushed back through legal challenges and protective legislation, the administration proposed further NIH budget cuts and sweeping regulatory changes to shift grant decisions from scientific peer review to political oversight, sparking massive public opposition and raising concerns about the future of American biomedical innovation.