Russel Vought will reportedly be given veto power over all NIH grants
Pending move comes over the objections of the NIH director.
Pending move comes over the objections of the NIH director.
The short version
- On Friday, The Washington Post reported on a contentious White House meeting in which the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jay Bhattacharya, tried to fend off yet another effort to place funding decisions under political control.
- The move came from Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has sought to limit and control research funds.
- The Post suggested that Bhattacharya ended up on the losing side of the fight.
What happened
This initial leak has been confirmed and expanded on by outlets such as The New York Times and Politico . It now appears that the administration is drafting an executive order that would give Vought veto power over every individual grant awarded by the NIH.
Why it matters
The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research on the planet, and its $47 billion budget is larger than that of the next 10 research funders combined.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.