Federal judge extends temporary block on Trump planned cuts to National Institutes of Health funding

A federal judge on Friday extended a temporary block of the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and delay new lifesaving discoveries (Source: “Judge extends temporary block to huge cuts in National Institutes of Health research funding,” Associated Press, Feb. 21).
 
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley had issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month in response to separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions nationwide.
 
The NIH, the main funder of biomedical research, awarded about $35 billion in grants to research groups last year. The total is divided into direct costs – covering researchers’ salaries and laboratory supplies – and indirect costs, the administrative and facility costs needed to support that work.

The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab research that is the foundation for discoveries.
 
During a hearing Friday, Kelley said she was extending that temporary block while deciding on a more permanent ruling.
 
The states and research groups say the cuts are illegal, pointing to bipartisan congressional action during President Donald Trump’s first term to prohibit it. In court Friday, Trump administration attorney Brian Lea argued the issue is “broad discretion power of the executive branch” in how to allocate funds.