The White House Office of Management and Budget halted payments from the National Institutes of Health to researchers around the country, according to a memo sent to the institute and center directors at the agency on Tuesday afternoon. Then late in the evening, after protests from members of Congress and patient advocacy groups, the Trump administration reversed the move and reinstated the funding.
The afternoon email had directed NIH officials to immediately halt the issuing of research grants, research and development contracts, and training awards during a “pause” of unspecified duration.
That constituted the entirety of new and, possibly, ongoing research grant dollars that go from the NIH out to universities, academic medical centers, and other research institutions. The four-sentence email, which STAT obtained, referred to a footnote included with OMB’s apportionment of NIH funding, its allocation of congressionally appropriated dollars for the final two months of the fiscal year.
