I am, somewhat inexplicably, reading the original AKIRA manga. I owned the movie (the source of today’s header image) on VHS, but otherwise haven’t engaged with this material in like 20 years. I had to close the book and walk away when the government and science collided at the end of Volume 3. Sigh.
Anyway, this week’s update includes a summary of the House’s latest appropriations bill, a new level of review for NIH grants, several new executive orders, and more DOJ investigations into medical school admissions.
Federal Research Policy
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) released its spending bill for fiscal year 2027 and the markup process began on Friday. Similar to last year, the bill is less severe than the Presidential Budget Request. Science has coverage.
If passed, this bill would cut the budget for the Department of Education by about 10% and would eliminate federally subsidized student loans.
The Department of Health and Human Services would see its budget cut by about 5%. NIH would receive a slight increase ($100 million, to a budget of $47.3 billion). Funding to individual institutes would be relatively flat, with NIEHS and NIMH (-7.8%) and NIMH (-5.5%) seeing the biggest changes compared to this year.
In addition, the proposal includes broad language banning funding for “gain of function” research and research involving cats and dogs that involves pain or distress (D or E on this scale).
The bill imposes a 30% cap on indirect costs for universities subject to endowment taxes.
After the markup process, the bill will need to be reconciled with the Senate version and then signed by the President.
Science is reporting that all grants approved for funding by NIH are now subject to a review by political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The President signed an executive order on Wednesday which - if implemented - would remove civil service protections from approximately eight thousand federal workers whose roles have significant influence over policy. The EO is accompanied by a list of positions that would be affected. For example, at the National Institutes of Health, this would affect a variety of directors, program leads, and supervisory positions. NPR and GovExec have additional coverage.
Many outlets, including the New York Times, Ars Technica, Science, and Nature are reporting on the proposal from the White House Management and Budget to exert more control over federal grant funding.
Public Health
The President signed an executive order last Friday to support the changes to the childhood vaccine schedule proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services back in January.
The Department of Health and Human Services appears to still be attempting to gain access to Americans’ medical records to study Autism and vaccine injuries.
Higher Education
The Department of Justice announced this week that it has opened its investigations into medical school admissions practices to an additional 15 schools. The press release does not name the schools.
Other News
California’s state senate passed a bill last week that would create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, a new public entity to help fund health and science research. To become law, the proposal will require passage by the House, the Governor’s signature, and voter approval at the next statewide general election.