Today’s headline is brought to you by this very strange story about phone lines at HHS and this requisite clip from Mad Men. The New York Times has a recent article that provides some additional background on White Coat Waste.
Otherwise, today’s update is relatively brief. There are some notes on the NIH and CDC Director’s testimony to congress, federal judges reining in some public health decisions, and yet another front in the ongoing conflict between the Administration and Harvard.
Stay cool out there, folks.
Federal Research Policy
NIH and CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya testified before congress on Tuesday.
In advance of the hearing, OMB apportioned NIH its budget for FY2026. NSF had its budget apportioned several weeks ago, but has still been slow to disseminate grant funds. Dr. Bhattacharya promised that NIH will spend its budget this year.
The Washington Post is reporting that the Department of Defense is currently preparing to ask congress for an additional $200 billion dollars to finance the military campaign in Iran. This supplemental funding is nearly twice the annual budget for The Department of Health and Human Services (which includes NIH, CDC, FDA, etc).
Nature has a piece about the decline in “Requests for Applications” announcements (RFAs) at NIH and how that represents a pivot towards more flexibility in the work that NIH can fund, an interesting development as the grant reviewing process becomes increasingly politicized.
The inaugural NIH Scientific Freedom Lecture was held this week. The recording should be up soon. Ars Technica has a piece that provides context on the series and this week’s speaker, science journalist Matthew Ridley.
NIH released a notice outlining various legislative mandates that affect NIH-funded research. Yup, work supporting gun control is still not allowed The anti-harassment language in the notice is perhaps something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Public Health
A federal judge has stated that the federal government did not base its decisions on science when it limited Covid shots and revised the childhood immunization schedule. For the time being, these decisions have been paused.
Another federal judge has (at least temporarily) blocked the Administrations from restricting gender-affirming healthcare to minors. The ruling states that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his authority when he stated that such treatment doesn’t meet “professionally recognized standards.”
Higher Education
Seventeen states are suing the Department of Education over the new requirement that colleges provide detailed admissions and applicant data to the agency broken down by race and sex.
Pride flags were taken down at Boston University this week.
The Department of Justice has filed suit against Harvard, alleging that the University violated federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment on campus. This is separate from the lawsuit filed last month, which concerns the the University’s admissions practices.