Senator Baldwin Exposes Trump Administration Halt on Lifesaving Research, Despite Court Orders

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, slammed the Trump administration for stopping all grant funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the past ten days and continuing to block funding for lifesaving disease research, like finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. This halt in funding is despite two court orders directing the Trump Administration to end its unlawful efforts to freeze all federal grants and the Trump Administration rescinding its Office of Management and Budget memo that ordered a freeze to all federal grants. It’s also on top of the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to cap indirect costs for biomedical research across the country, jeopardizing lifesaving breakthroughs.

“The President has completely stopped funding for research that discovers cures for diseases that devastate families across the country, like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, all so he can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” said Senator Baldwin. “Make no mistake, their efforts to rob Peter to pay Paul means crushing families’ hopes and dreams of having cures for diseases that their kids, parents, or grandparents have – all to line the pockets of guys like Elon Musk. The NIH supports truly lifesaving, groundbreaking work that helps people across the country stay healthy and alive, and halting this funding only means fewer treatments for Americans and fewer American jobs.” 

Since last Monday, February 3, the NIH has announced zero notice of awards for grants. To date, the Trump Administration has awarded 3,600 fewer NIH grants and $1 billion less in funding to research institutions across the country over the comparable period in the last administration. In addition, the Trump Administration has canceled more than 50 NIH Advisory Council meetings, the crucial final step in the grant approval process to determine which grants will be funded. For example, the National Advisory Council on Aging canceled its January meeting which, based on recent data and trends, is delaying an estimated 1,000 grants and approximately $600 million to support Alzheimer’s disease research.  

Even if NIH resumes issuing grants that they have frozen for the last ten days, Advisory Council and peer review meetings still being cancelled will continue to cause significant delays in research funding. This is already impacting tens of thousands of grant applications and billions of dollars in lifesaving research funding and could be a sign of the Trump Administration seeking to illegally impound federal funding for lifesaving research.  

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