Key facts
- The White House has dropped a planned executive order that would have put control over NIH research grants in the hands of political appointees.
- Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced the White House's decision to drop the executive order.
- The proposed order would have created a new board, including White House Budget Director Russ Vought, to control the NIH's grantmaking process.
- Collins stated that the research grant process should be merit-based, not politicized.
- Congress previously signaled disapproval of a similar plan by including a provision in a stopgap funding bill to temporarily block its implementation.
The White House has abandoned a planned executive order that would have placed control over National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants in the hands of political appointees, according to Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine). Collins, a vocal critic of the proposal, stated that the decision to drop the order was a win for merit-based grantmaking.
The administration had intended to establish a new board, which would have included White House Budget Director Russ Vought, to oversee the NIH's grantmaking process. Vought was reportedly a proponent of the plan, aiming to cut funding to institutions like Harvard. Collins emphasized that the process for awarding research and biomedical grants should not be politicized.
This development follows earlier congressional disapproval of a similar initiative. Lawmakers, at Collins' urging, included a provision in a recent stopgap funding bill to temporarily prevent the administration from implementing a prior plan that would have given political appointees control over federal health grants. The White House had previously attempted to block $2.6 billion in grants to Harvard, but this move was ultimately blocked by a court.