NIH and HHS Funding for Medical Research

Press Release:

Attorney General Tong Sues to Stop Trump from Defunding Lifesaving Medical Research

Preceding Event:

The National Institute of Health announced on Feb. 7, 2025 that it was going to cut grant rates to 15% across the board. According to the plaintiffs, this would jeopardize medical research done at universities and institutions across the country by not providing the necessary funding for research to start or continue. The funding cuts would affect not only future research grants, but current ones as well.

This directive, was known as “Notice Number ‘NOT OD-25–068’ and was titled ‘Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates’.”

During his first presidency in 2017, President Donald Trump had tried to cut these rates to 10% across the board in a budget proposal and Congress rejected it.

General Overview:

According to the press release from Feb. 10, 2025, “Attorney General William Tong and 21 other attorneys general today sued the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for unlawfully cutting funds that support cutting-edge, lifesaving medical and public health research at universities and research institutions across the country.”

Tong and his fellow plaintiffs argue in this suit that these cuts violate the Administrative Procedures Act.
Trump had tried to do this during his first term, but Congress enacted an appropriations rider prohibiting “HHS or NIH from spending appropriated funds ‘to develop or implement a modified approach to’ the reimbursement of ‘indirect costs’ and ‘deviations from negotiated rates’.” This rider is still in effect.

Connecticut Nexus:

According to the press release, “The Trump plan would eliminate $35 million in funding for ongoing, promising research at the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut Health Center. This includes research into treatments for the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression. Funding further supports UConn research into autism, early diagnosis technology for preventable causes of newborn death, heart disease, cancer and chronic kidney disease, treatment for chronic lower-back pain, and emerging tick-borne diseases, among many others detailed in this declaration.

The University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut Health Center collectively received $620,648,927 in NIH funding this year.”

Date of filing:

Feb. 10, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-10338

Case title:

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al v. National Institutes of Health, et al

Plaintiffs 22 states

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,
ATTORNEY GENERAL DANA NESSEL ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
STATE OF ILLINOIS,
STATE OF ARIZONA,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
STATE OF CONNECTICUT,
STATE OF COLORADO,
STATE OF DELAWARE,
STATE OF HAWAI’I,
STATE OF MAINE,
STATE OF MARYLAND,
STATE OF MINNESOTA,
STATE OF NEW JERSEY,
STATE OF NEW YORK,
STATE OF NEVADA,
STATE OF NEW MEXICO,
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
STATE OF OREGON,
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND,
STATE OF VERMONT,
STATE OF WASHINGTON,
STATE OF WISCONSIN,

Defendants:

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH;
MATTHEW MEMOLI, M.D., M.S., in his official capacity as Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health;
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES;
DOROTHY FINK, in her official capacity as Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Related case #(‘s):

1:25-cv-10340-AK
1:25-cv-10346-AK

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

CLOSED — Terminated April 4, 2025
Judgment in favor of plaintiffs. Defendants enjoined from taking steps to implement, apply or enforce Notice Number NOT-OD-25–068.