On Monday, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a lawsuit with 20 other states, seeking to prevent funding cuts to the National Institute of Health (NIH). This followed action by a federal judge in Massachusetts granting a temporary restraining order blocking the funding cuts under the new Trump administration.
“This attempt to slash funding for research awards that have already been granted violates the law and would cost North Carolina’s public universities hundreds of millions of dollars every year going forward,” said Jackson in a press release. “It would permanently diminish higher education in our state and severely damage many of our state’s core industries, causing major layoffs. The court was right to stop this federal overreach, and I’ll keep fighting to protect our state’s economic future.”
Last Friday, the NIH announced that it would cut funding for indirect costs of grant-funded research projects to just 15%. Indirect costs include administrative costs such as maintenance, operations, equipment, personnel, and accounting costs.
“The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” reads the new NIH policy. “It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”
Judge Angel Kelley of the US District Court of Massachusetts gave the Trump administration a Friday deadline to file an opposing arguments, and a hearing was scheduled for Feb 21, according to Roll Call. The NIH is the main funding source for medical research within the US, and over $45 billion was spent on more than 50,000 grants in FY23. Of that $45 billion, about $9 billion went to indirect costs.
“Effectively halting research to cure and treat human disease will directly impact the well-being of the Plaintiff states’ citizens who are the beneficiaries of research creating treatments, such as modern gene editing, vaccines such as flu vaccines, and cures for diseases like cancer, infectious diseases, and addiction,” reads the complaint. “The well-being of the Plaintiff States’ citizens also will be adversely affected by the halting of research involving a better understanding of health conditions. These universities and research institutions are vital economic and social institutions in each state, employing thousands of their citizens, educating and training thousands more, and creating investment and partnering opportunities with the private sector.”
Katie Miller, one of Trump’s appointees to the newly formed government agency the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), praised the move in an X post.
President Trump is doing away with Liberal DEI Deans’ slush fund. This cuts just Harvard’s outrageous price gouging by ~$250M/ year. https://t.co/OuX7pPuAtC
— Katie Miller (@katierosemiller) February 7, 2025
The other 20 states joining the lawsuit are Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
A new NIH director has not yet been confirmed, but Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, has been nominated by Trump. Dr. Bhattacharya’s confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled.