In a move that has triggered legal backlash, the Trump Administration, along with the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), faces a lawsuit spearheaded by Attorney General Anne Lopez and her fellow attorneys general from 21 states. The suit, as reported by the office of the Hawaii Governor, challenges the abrupt slashing of indirect cost rates for medical and public health research to an all-encompassing 15% rate, a significant drop from what is necessary to conduct cutting-edge research.
Announced last Friday and effective as of yesterday, the NIH enforced these cuts with no prior notice, leaving universities and research institutions unprepared for the resulting financial strain. With such immediate and severe budgetary deficits, there is a real risk of stalled clinical trials and research programs, along with potential layoffs and laboratory shutdowns. Attorney General Lopez underscored the profound impact on local research, citing, “President Trump’s total lack of compassion for all Americans knows no bounds. In just three weeks, he has cut programs providing healthcare and education, resources for climate change and clean air, and policies promoting diversity and equity. Now, he is making massive cuts to lifesaving medical research. Here in Hawai‘i, the University of Hawai‘i is supported by 175 awards and subawards from the NIH with a current value of $211M. I joined this lawsuit with my fellow democratic attorneys general because we are the last line of defense to enforce the rule of law,” as noted by the office of the Hawaii Governor.
Institutions typically negotiate indirect cost reimbursements, which cover varied research-associated expenses, through a rigorous process that concludes in a formal agreement with the federal government. The coalition of attorneys general asserts the Trump Administration's indiscriminate cuts are not only ill-conceived but unlawful, citing violations of the Administrative Procedure Act and contraventions of congressional mandates from President Trump's first term designed to prevent such sweeping reductions.
Medical research, an arena where the United States has long been a front-runner, thrives on NIH grants, which have historically facilitated a host of scientific milestones including cancer treatments, DNA sequencing, and the development of MRI technology. With the threat of reduced funding looming, dozens of NIH-supported scientists, Nobel Prize laureates among them, might see their groundbreaking work compromised. The coalition, which includes attorneys general from states such as California, New York, and Massachusetts, filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, aiming to enforce the rule of law and oppose these measures that could derail the progress of medical innovation.
Representing a swath of jurisdictions across the country, the 21 attorneys general collaborating with Lopez are from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The lawsuit, embodying this collective challenge, is publicly accessible and can be examined via the aforementioned hyperlink to the Hawaii Governor's official page.
