U.S. News: Watchdog Faults NIH Fund Delays

 

“WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration ran afoul of the Impoundment Control Act when it delayed and canceled billions of dollars in government grants to scientists in the first several months of this year, according to a top government watchdog.

 

The Government Accountability Office said in a decision Tuesday that the National Institutes of Health stopped and delayed funds while terminating more than 1,800 existing grants and canceling meetings early in the year to award new ones. The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, didn't adequately justify those actions, the report said.

 

The Impoundment Control Act allows the White House to pause or cancel spending approved by Congress only in limited circumstances. The GAO has 40 open investigations into the Trump administration's funding freezes.

 

The GAO can file a lawsuit to try to release money, though it has only done so once. Besides NIH's money to scientists, the agency has found that the administration's actions since January have violated the Impoundment Control Act four other times, in blocks to funding to build EV chargers, support for education programs for low-income families, money to local libraries, and grants for school energy upgrades.

 

NIH and HHS referred requests for comment to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which didn't respond. Trump allies have suggested the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and that money appropriated by Congress is a ceiling not a floor.

 

Lawmakers of both parties have maintained that the administration is overstepping by second-guessing Congress.

 

Most of the NIH's $48 billion budget goes to research at labs around the country. Scientists compete for and win grants from NIH to run their projects over several years.

 

But this year, between February and June, the NIH assigned $8 billion less in funding compared with the same window last year, the GAO report found.

 

In its reply to GAO, HHS told the watchdog that meetings to consider new grants had resumed, and that the agency had issued 5,252 new grants through July 28. But the agency didn't provide current figures for assigned funds for fiscal year 2025, and didn't justify the pause earlier this year, the report said.

 

"The longer this goes on, the more clinical trials that will be cut short, labs that will shutter, and lifesaving research that will never see the light of day," Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: Watchdog Faults NIH Fund Delays. Subbaraman, Nidhi.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 06 Aug 2025: A3.