Amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to wrest the power of the purse from Congress, an estimated $15 billion allotted by lawmakers to fund life-saving biomedical research via the National Institutes of Health was temporarily frozen and then said to be released Tuesday.
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the initial decision to withhold the funding came from Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Trump administration and Project 2025 co-author. Vought has expansive views of presidential power, the Journal noted, and has said the NIH needs “fundamental reform.”
In an interview with CBS news over the weekend, Vought defended already holding up billions in congressionally allocated funding for research on things like cancer and cardiovascular disease by claiming that the NIH has been “weaponized against the American people.” He made the comments after 14 Republican Senators sent him a letter imploring that he release congressionally appropriated funding, including money marked for the NIH.