Key Republican senators began pushing back Monday against a policy change by the National Institutes of Health that would substantially cut funding for research overhead to universities, medical centers, and other grant recipients.
The policy change involves a mechanism that NIH uses to pay research facilities for overhead costs. Many research facilities get upwards of 50% extra on each grant to cover the indirect costs of research, such as administrative expenses and the cost of maintaining facilities. The NIH announced Friday that it was setting a 15% cap on those payments.
Senators soon began hearing from universities and research facilities in their states. Among them is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the committee that oversees the NIH. He said universities with “deep deep endowments” can afford the overhead costs, but others cannot shoulder those costs.
“One thing I’ve heard loud and clear from my people in Louisiana is that Louisiana will suffer from these cuts,” Cassidy told STAT. “And research that benefits people in Louisiana may not be done.”
However, Cassidy is open to reforming the policy.
“I do not want all the NIH money to be going to Massachusetts and California. I want it to as well come to Louisiana,” Cassidy said. “So that said, there might be some areas to reform.”
Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, called the policy “poorly conceived,” in a statement she released Monday, which said it would have a devastating impact on biomedical research. She relayed concerns from researchers in her state of Maine to HHS Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who promised to re-examine the initiative once confirmed — Kennedy is expected to be confirmed this week.
“There is no investment that pays greater dividends to American families than our investment in biomedical research,” Collins said.
She added that the 2024 government-funding law prohibits the executive branch from modifying NIH indirect costs.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) also vowed over the weekend to work with RFK Jr. on the initiative, telling AL.com the administration should use a “smart, targeted approach.”
A federal judge in Boston issued a temporary order on Monday halting the policy in the 22 states that sued the Trump administration to block it.