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A federal court has made permanent a ruling against the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to slash funding from the National Institutes of Health for medical research programs.
Newsweek has contacted the National Institutes of Health for comment via email outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
NIH, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the largest public funding source of biomedical research in the world. Since January, the Trump administration has sought to cut back on research funding as part of its efforts to cut government spending, which has left many scientists scrambling to figure out how to continue their work.
The federal court’s ruling marks an initial victory for a coalition of academic institutions, that had argued that ongoing research was threatened. An appeal is highly likely.
What To Know
In a ruling on Friday, Judge Angel Kelley, of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, barred the Trump administration from limiting funding from the National Institutes of Health that supports research at universities and academic medical centers, restoring billions of dollars in grant money.
Judge Kelley had previously issued a temporary ban, arguing that the Trump’s administration’s policy was unnecessarily reckless and would inflict serious harm on important medical research, but the new ruling makes the ban permanent. Unusually, the ruling came at the government’s own request—officials asked the court to finalize the temporary decision so they could move forward with an appeal of the ban.
President Donald Trump arrives at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. President Donald Trump arrives at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Nonetheless, the decision is an early victory for a wide range of medical research institutions, which had estimated that the lost funding amounted to nearly $4 billion.
Trump’s proposal would have limited NIH support for
Donald Trump Suffers Legal Blow Over Medical Research Cuts
