Exclusive / Trump administration backing off NIH grant order amid pushback - Semafor

The Trump administration is backing off its initial plan for an executive order that would give the president greater influence over decisionmaking on National Institutes of Health grants, according to three people familiar with the process.

The move comes after Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, pressured the Office of Management and Budget to abandon the effort outright.

While the White House is changing course on the planned order, it still may release one on NIH grants that takes a different tack. The White House and NIH declined to comment.

In an interview with Semafor on Wednesday, Collins said she’s been raising concerns about the politicization of NIH grants since July and believes she’s “making progress” on fending off the executive order.

“What we’re hearing — and I’ve been weighing in with the White House — is that [chief of staff] Susie Wiles is also concerned about what the impact of this would be,” Collins told Semafor. “And I am hoping — although I do not know it officially from [White House legislative affairs director] James Braid, who I have talked to about it — that the executive order won’t be issued.”

She said if the order is issued she will “continue my efforts in the appropriations committee to block its implementation.”

The proposed order caused a furor after a Friday meeting where NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and several administration officials, including OMB director Russell Vought, held a lengthy discussion about empowering the White House to involve itself in NIH grants in an effort to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

The meeting — which at times turned contentious — lasted more than an hour, according to a source familiar with it. It was first reported by The Washington Post.

The order has “since been pared back after White House officials further discussed and evaluated it,” a third person familiar with the process said.

Even if the order moves forward, there are still outstanding legal questions about its scope and weight after Congress intervened to limit OMB influence over NIH spending in a government funding bill passed earlier this year.

“There is still a question of ‘Is it dead?’ versus ‘We don’t actually have a choice but to wait, so we might as well not do this before the midterms,’” said one pharmaceutical industry lobbyist.

If the administration had advanced the original scope of the planned NIH order, it could sink Congress’ ability to pass a stopgap spending bill at the end of the year.

“They have to” pull back, a person familiar with the talks said. “They won’t be able to pass a CR on December 11 if they issue an EO.”