New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with 21 other state attorneys general, successfully halted the Trump administration's efforts to reduce funding for medical and scientific research. A nationwide preliminary injunction was secured against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), preventing cuts to billions of dollars that support critical medical and public health research.
Attorney General James emphasized the importance of maintaining these funds, stating, “The president may want to play politics with public health, but we refuse to risk the resources Americans rely on.” She noted that without this legal action, New York could have faced a loss of $850 million in funding, impacting research on diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.
The issue arose when NIH announced on February 7 an abrupt reduction in indirect cost rates for research grants to 15 percent. This change was set to take effect by February 10, leaving institutions little time to address budget shortfalls.
In response, Attorney General James and her coalition filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. The court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) shortly after, halting NIH from implementing the proposed funding cuts.
The order now extends protections from the TRO, ensuring continued funding for biomedical and public health research nationwide. NIH is a major source of federal funding for medical research in the U.S., contributing to significant scientific advancements like cancer treatments and DNA sequencing.
In New York alone, there are $5 billion in open NIH grants across various institutions. The proposed funding cap would have affected approximately 250 institutions statewide. For instance, the State University of New York (SUNY) system faced potential losses of $78 million.
The lawsuit saw participation from attorneys general representing Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.