US judge bars Trump administration from cutting NIH research funding

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from carrying out steep cuts to federal grant funding for research that universities and Democratic-led states warn would lead to layoffs, lab closures and a curtailment of scientific and medical studies.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston issued a nationwide injunction at the request of 22 Democratic state attorneys general and groups representing medical schools and universities who argued the National Institutes of Health's planned funding cuts were unlawful.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, had on February 10 temporarily blocked NIH from moving forward with the cuts until she could hear arguments in the litigation. She later extended that order while considering whether to issue a longer term injunction.

NIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cuts are part of Trump's wide-ranging actions since returning to the presidency on January 20 aimed at slashing federal spending, downsizing the federal workforce, and dismantling large parts of the U.S. government.

The states and groups sued after NIH on February 7 announced it would be sharply reducing the rate at which it reimbursed research institutions for "indirect costs" related to achieving a scientific project's goals, such as laboratory space, faculty, equipment and infrastructure.

The Trump administration said it was capping the rate it would reimburse those indirect costs at 15%, down from an average of about 27% to 28%. Doing so would save the government $4 billion a year, NIH said in a post on the social media platform X.

The NIH said it spent more than $35 billion in fiscal 2023 on grants awarded to researchers at more than 2,500 institutions. About $9 billion of that money went to covering overhead and institutions' indirect costs, the NIH said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang)