Cnn
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The efforts of the Trump administration to reduce federal funding of the National Institutes of Health for Research Programs in universities and medical systems were blocked nationally.
Lawyers representing dozens of research institutions told Judge Angel Kelley on Massachusetts on Monday that the change “would devastate critical public health in universities and research institutions in the United States. Without relief of the action of the NIH, the advanced work of these institutions to heal and treat human diseases will stop. »»
Almost all of the academic and medical communities across the country have gone before the courts by asking for emergency aid.
In hundreds of pages of statements under oath, more than 30 research directors on medical systems and university leaders describe how research financing cuts would devastate their work and harm patients.
A professor of chemistry from New York State University who studies Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and Huntington diseases wrote that the reduction in costs by the NIH “will cost thousands of Americans their lives”.
A second trial – led by the eminent conservative lawyer Paul Clement and other great lawyers – on Monday from American research universities also declared in court that the NIH cuts “would devastate medical research”.
A third similar trial filed on Monday with large groups representing medical schools, pharmacy schools and hospitals had asked Kelley to extend his initial action to apply not only to the states that had continued.
Kelley agreed with 22 states led by Democrats that cost reduction should be temporarily blocked.
Late Monday evening, Kelley has widened the NIH cost break on a national level, writing the NIH and the Ministry of Health and Social Services and “their officers, employees, servants, agents, appointed and successors are enjoined by Take measures to take measures to take measures to measures to implement, apply or apply “the reduction in NIH costs” in any form whatsoever with regard to the institutions of the country until that new orders are made by our court ”.
The Trump administration had planned to considerably reduce the amount it subscribes to the national level in public and private universities to finance the general costs of research programs.
As part of the Administration Plan, the financing of the National Institutes of Health, called indirect cost rate, would be capped at 15% against an average of more than 27%. Certain research institutions, including Harvard, have rates above 60%, according to the NIH, which said in a position on X last week that policy would save more than $ 4 billion per year.
These rates aim to cover the various general costs – such as the costs of the installations, regulatory compliance and administrative support – that research institutions must take their research into account.
The proposed funding discounts have raised concerns among certain Republicans at the concern about the impact on research institutions in their states of origin.
As it supports administration efforts to reduce unnecessary federal spending, Alabama Katie Britt -Britt senator, generally a reliable Trump ally, told Al.com that “intelligent and targeted approach is necessary “For the NIH” so as not to hinder life – safeguard, revolutionary research in very efficient institutions like those of Alabama.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senatural Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told CNN that he had been in “active conversations” with the universities of his state on the way the cuts proposed by NIH could considerably harm their research capacities, adding, “This is a problem.
Perhaps the strongest decline came from senator Susan Collins of Maine, who said in a statement on Monday that she opposed “the poorly designed directive”.
Collins, which chairs the Senate credits committee, said it heard Maine research institutions that the cuts would be “devastating, stopping vital biomedical research and resulting in the loss of jobs”.
Collins said that she had spoken to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to lead HHS, that morning “to express my strong opposition to these arbitrary reductions in vital research funding in our Maine institutions” .
Collins, who said that she would support the appointment of Kennedy, said he had promised to re -examine the NIH’s initiative as soon as he confirmed. A vote on the appointment of Kennedy is expected this week.
This story has been updated with an additional reaction.
Meg Tirrell de CNN, Tierney Sneed and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.