WEIRD SCIENCE

Trump’s New Power Grab Revealed

The president is weighing a plan to give his administration greater control over billions of dollars in federal research funding.

President Donald Trump is working on an executive order that could expand his administration’s control over billions of dollars earmarked for scientific research grants.

The Washington Post reported that White House officials, including Trump, convened on Friday to draft an executive order that would create an external committee with the ability to veto grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Trump reportedly directed his budget director, Russ Vought, to draft an executive order to create a board that would decide which grants the NIH should fund.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill already poured cold water on Vought’s plan to give political appointees power over federal health grants. In the stopgap funding bill, lawmakers included a provision that temporarily blocked the administration from giving political appointees control of federal health grants.

The provision came after concerns over Vought’s earlier efforts to exert greater control over the NIH’s grant-making process. Lawmakers have also pushed back on efforts to slow or freeze the agency’s distribution of research funds.

Politico reported that the administration is specifically targeting research funding at Harvard University. The administration has been at odds with the Ivy League university since it tried to block its federal grant funding, but lost the battle in court.

During the Friday meeting, Trump reportedly asked NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to cut Harvard’s funding, but he refused.

The meeting allegedly grew contentious, especially regarding the relationship between Vought and Bhattacharya. During the meeting, Vought—whom Trump has embraced as his “Grim Reaper”—accused Bhattacharya of funding grants that were at odds with the priorities of the administration, including supporting research related to diversity.

The two officials have previously clashed over the administration’s efforts to impose greater scrutiny on NIH grants, with Bhattacharya defending the agency’s existing grant-making process, according to reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Still, the potential board would include both Bhattacharya and Vought. It would also require a unanimous decision to award grants.

If it moves forward, it would be the latest attempt by the Trump administration to exert greater control over the NIH, which distributes tens of billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funding for biomedical research each year. The proposed board would give Vought a direct role in determining which projects receive that money.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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