Trump (R) is moving to put political appointees in charge of billions of dollars in federal health research grants, in another attempt to cut Harvard’s funding. In an Oval Office meeting on 9/18/2026, Trump directed his budget director, Russ Vought (R), to draft an executive order to create a board that would decide which grants the National Institutes of Health should fund.
Congress this month, signaled disapproval of an earlier Vought plan to give political appointees control of federal health grants. Lawmakers included a provision in a stopgap funding bill that temporarily blocks the administration from implementing that earlier plan. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) personally rejected Vought’s plan. Cutting funding for Harvard University is a major priority for Trump, according to the officials, prompting him to seek a workaround.
Last year, the administration sought to block $2.6 billion in grant funding to Harvard after the administration accused America’s oldest university of failing to address anti-semitism on campus. Harvard sued, arguing the administration was violating its free speech rights, and convinced a federal judge in Boston to order the funding restored a year ago. Trump on 9/18/2026 asked NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya (R) to cut Harvard’s funding but Bhattacharya refused, the officials said. The proposed board would include Bhattacharya and Vought and would be required to reach unanimous decisions on grant awards, the officials said.
The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how the nation’s largest biomedical research agency distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money. Vought, who has led Trump’s efforts to combat “wokeness” in academia, has clashed repeatedly with Bhattacharya, a former Stanford professor of medicine who gained fame by opposing Covid lockdowns, over the administration’s approach to scientific research. The disagreement came to a head on Friday in the meeting first reported by the Washington Post. “The president called [Bhattacharya] into the principals’ office,” a person familiar with the meeting said.
Trump, Vought and Bhattacharya were at the meeting, according to the officials. Education Secretary Linda McMahon was also present but did not participate in the disagreement, according to the officials. Others present included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, White House Counsel Will Scharf, and OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta. The Office of Management and Budget declined to comment. The White House directed inquiries to the Health and Human Services Department that oversees the NIH. An HHS spokesperson said the department was "committed to the core mission of the NIH" and that "NIH grant monies will be disbursed."
The proposed board would represent a significant escalation in the administration’s effort to exert political control over federal grant-making for health research. For decades, NIH grant applications have gone through a two-level review process in which scientific peer-review panels assess their scientific merit, then advisory councils make recommendations. Final funding decisions are made by the directors of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers, most of whom are career government employees. Vought has argued that political appointees should have greater authority to review and terminate grants that conflict with the president’s priorities.
He has said he believes career bureaucrats at the NIH have facilitated progressive academics’ research, at the expense of more worthwhile projects. OMB in May proposed a governmentwide rule that would give political appointees more power over federal grants, including the ability to block funding they determine is inconsistent with administration policy. Lawmakers from both parties, scientists and state attorneys general have criticized the proposal, warning that it could inject politics into scientific research.
Congress in the September funding bill barred OMB from finalizing Vought’s earlier plan using money provided under that law, which expires in mid-December. OMB could move forward if lawmakers don’t extend the restriction in new funding legislation Last year, Bhattacharya and Vought clashed over OMB’s move to freeze NIH grantmaking, according to a POLITICO investigation. Under pressure from lawmakers to spend the money they’d appropriated, Bhattacharya sought help from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who urged him to reach out to Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and others on Capitol Hill.
Because NIH grants go to institutions in their states, lawmakers tend to favor generous funding for the agency. Britt joined 13 other Republican senators in a letter to Vought in July of last year warning that freezing the funds could threaten access to new treatments and undermine biomedical research. The money was ultimately released, with Vought describing the freeze as a “programmatic review.” Lawmakers also rejected a Vought-driven plan to cut the NIH’s budget by 40 percent for fiscal 2026, which began last October, instead giving it a small boost. This year, representatives and senators have continued to express concern about the slow pace of grant-making as NIH has waited for OMB approval of its spending plans.
Earlier this year, in congressional testimony, Bhattacharya reassured lawmakers that the money would be spent. “My job is to make sure every single dollar goes out,” he said.
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