Protect Medical Research From White House Political Control

As your constituent, I ask you to protect National Institutes of Health research grants from White House political control. NIH supports research to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases. A White House board could let officials outside NIH block grants even after scientific review and approval. A WHITE HOUSE GRANT VETO WOULD UNDERCUT CONGRESS’S SPENDING POWER President Trump has reportedly directed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought to draft an order creating a board to review NIH grants. The issue reaches beyond NIH because Congress, not the White House, determines how federal funds may be spent through laws it enacts. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. An executive order cannot override law or congressional spending restrictions. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins has warned OMB and NIH not to proceed with the reported executive order. She says Congress blocked a similar OMB proposal in the September 2 Continuing Resolution, the law that continued government funding, and that political review imposed by other means would violate congressional intent. But the reported NIH proposal shows why Congress still must protect NIH grant decisions by law. MEDICAL RESEARCH SHOULD BE JUDGED ON SCIENCE, NOT POLITICS Presidents may set research policy within the authority Congress has given them. But giving a White House review board power to block NIH grants would create a political veto over medical research. For patients and families, the consequences could be dire. NIH-funded research seeks better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses. Research funding should follow scientific merit and federal law, not White House approval. Allowing a President to bypass these limits could weaken Congress’s spending power beyond NIH. Congress can protect research and its authority through legislation, appropriations, and oversight. These protections should be enacted before this system is established and should apply to any substantially similar political review mechanism. I ask you to support the following actions: (1) ENACT A STATUTORY PROHIBITION. Bar OMB, the Executive Office of the President, and presidential boards from approving, rejecting, delaying, or conditioning NIH grants. (2) USE THE POWER OF THE PURSE. Prohibit federal funds from establishing or operating such a board or substantially similar system. (3) PROTECT SCIENTIFIC REVIEW. Preserve NIH’s scientific, merit-based review process while protecting Congress’s legislative and oversight authority. (4) CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES. Apply these protections to executive orders, regulations, guidance, committees, or differently named mechanisms. (5) EXERCISE OVERSIGHT. Hold hearings, require documents and testimony, and investigate attempts to withhold, delay, redirect, or condition NIH funds contrary to federal law. Thank you.

First sent on September 23 by Bill