This story was updated at 2:00 p.m. ET on Feb. 21.
The Trump administration is exploiting an administrative loophole to keep national research funding frozen, despite a federal judge ordering a halt to the action, according to Nature.
Shortly after President Donald Trump took office this January, the White House rolled out an initiative designed to slash billions from National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that went toward "indirect costs,” such as facilities, equipment and administrative expenses.
Despite a federal judge issuing a temporary pause across all states on the new order, both Nature and The Chronicle have reported that the funding is still indefinitely halted, leaving scientists in limbo.
The hold-up is rooted in grant proposal reviews, which are used to determine NIH funding and can no longer be scheduled at this time, according to internal emails cited by both publications. All NIH meetings currently are suspended under the new administration.
Blocking the NIH from conducting the procedural step means payments to researchers still aren’t going out. With a yearly budget of nearly $48 billion, the agency is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.
“It’s really quite nefarious,” Aaron Hoskins, Ph.D., an RNA biochemist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Nature. Due to a frozen grant application, Hoskins has had to reconsider hiring graduate students.
The legality of the move is under scrutiny because the U.S. Constitution gives Congress—not the president—the ability to dole out funds, David Super, an administrative law specialist at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., told Nature.
The HHS had not responded to Fierce Biotech’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Judge Angel Kelley for the U.S. District Court in Boston had issued a temporary pause to the federal action across all states after several universities and research centers filed suit Feb. 10. The broad-reaching order followed Kelley’s temporary restraining order against the action in 22 states that have also sued.
In a Feb. 21 hearing, the judge extended the nationwide temporary order, which was set to expire Feb. 24, according to STAT. The order will be active until Kelley makes a final decision on the proposed change.