Overview
- The Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 21 put NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya under scrutiny as he defended President Trump’s FY2027 budget plan that would cut NIH funding by $5 billion and propose eliminating five institutes.
- Senators said Jeffery Taubenberger, the acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stepped down and that other senior NIAID officials have been reassigned, leaving lawmakers worried about a leadership vacuum while Ebola and hantavirus responses continue.
- Lawmakers and data cited at the hearing said an OMB rule requiring full upfront funding of multi‑year grants effectively locked up roughly $2.5 billion and contributed to a sharp drop in the number of new NIH awards.
- The administration’s repeated proposal to cap indirect research costs at 15% drew bipartisan concern that it would reduce university and hospital capacity to run labs, and Bhattacharya suggested decoupling facilities funding from competitive research grants as an alternative.
- Researchers reported tangible harms: a STAT survey found many NIH‑funded scientists canceled projects, cut scopes or laid off staff, and Grant Witness data showed NIH had allocated far less of its 2026 budget by mid‑May than in prior years, which senators said is constraining new awards.