The White House has backed away from a plan to issue an executive order that would subject billions of dollars in federal health and biomedical research spending to heightened political scrutiny, according to four people familiar with the situation.
The proposed directive would have established a commission with the power to block government research grants if the money supported work in areas that did not align with President Donald Trump’s political agenda. The plan was discussed in a White House meeting Friday, and some on Capitol Hill had expected Trump to issue the order as soon as this week.
But fierce opposition from Democrats and Republicans in Congress forced the White House to recalibrate this week, according to some of the people familiar with the discussions, who described private conversations on the condition of anonymity. Nevertheless, they said, officials do not appear to have totally abandoned their desire to tighten their grip over federal research spending,
The White House, its Office of Management and Budget and the National Institutes of Health either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment.
At the heart of the matter is the NIH, the nation’s largest research agency, which disburses much of its $48 billion annual budget to researchers who study cancer, infectious diseases and other health priorities.
Historically, the NIH has awarded these grants based on scientific merit after a rigorous review by experts in the relevant fields. But under Trump, political appointees have exerted extraordinary control over the grant-making process in a bid to eliminate spending seen as “woke.”
The administration froze or cut more than 5,700 NIH grants worth a total of $15 billion since Trump returned to the White House, although roughly 4,500 have been restored, some as a result of lawsuits, according to Grant Witness, a website run by research scientists.
Several people familiar with the situation said the OMB and NIH were trying to forge a compromise to ensure that federal funding for biomedical research aligned with Trump’s priorities while at the same time reducing political meddling in grant decisions.
Given those efforts and pressure from Congress, the White House retreated from its plan to sign the executive order as soon as this week, according to three people familiar with the matter.
It is unclear if the administration plans to revive the matter later through another directive.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.