Judges Halt Cuts to Public Health Research in Some States & Order Health Information Restored

On Monday, a federal judged stopped cuts made to funding for publish health research, issuing a temporary pause to orders from the Trump administration, CNN reported. The temporary restraining order only applies to 22 Democratic-led states that brought a lawsuit challenging reduction in funding orders.

Under the challenged plan, funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) known as indirect cost rates would be capped at 15%, as CMM reported earlier this week. NIH reported its indirect cost rate averaged between 27% and 28%. When the NIH awards a grant to a scientist, an additional percentage of that award is provided to the scientist’s institution to pay for infrastructure that supports the research, such as lab equipment, utilities, hazardous waste disposal, HVAC, microscopes, and more.

If the administration’s plans to cut those rates are not halted, the “cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the lawsuit said. The attorney generals from states bringing the case said they expected private research institutions to bring their own lawsuit challenging the administration’s plans, as the states’ lawsuit would cover public research institutions, CNN reported.

Additionally, on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore certain public health webpages and datasets that federal health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had removed in recent weeks, CNN reported. The legal challenge came from a doctor’s group that said the information’s removal was hindering their ability to care for patients.

The judge ordered the restoration of specific webpages and datasets highlighted in their filings, and then instructed the parties to collaborate to identify other deleted resources that doctors need so that these resources also can be restored to federal websites.