Congressional Advocates Seek Expedited Disbursement of Critical NIH Funding

U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, led 13 of her Senate Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Russell Vought, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), advocating for the disbursement of appropriated funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in order to advance President Trump’s goals of curing diseases and making America healthy again.

The Trump administration had previously suspended or cut many NIH research grants earlier this year, conducting a review to ensure compliance with orders to end federal support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The senators, however, stressed that while they support responsible use of NIH funds, withholding them could inadvertently undermine trust in the agency and hinder progress on critical health challenges. 

“Suspension of these appropriated funds — whether formally withheld or functionally delayed — could threaten Americans’ ability to access better treatments and limit our nation’s leadership in biomedical science,” Britt and her colleagues warned. “It also risks inadvertently severing ongoing NIH-funded research prior to actionable results.”

In their letter, the senators emphasized their confidence in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, and requested the timely release of all FY25 NIH appropriations in accordance with congressional intent.

This reflects some of the ongoing Republican pushback against the Trump administration’s pattern of withholding money for any variety of programs that lawmakers have previously approved for a specific purpose.

It comes on the heels of the launch of GrantWitness (formerly GrantWatch) database, developed by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Scott Delaney and computational researcher Noam Ross, to track grant terminations by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF).  Grant Witness’ methodology was updated in June 2025 to improve accuracy; it compiles data through a combination of researcher self-reports and federal sources like NIH RePORTER, HHS TAGGS, and USAspending.gov. As of June 4, 2025, 2,282 NIH grants had been terminated, representing nearly $3.8 billion in lost funding, while 1,752 NSF grants had been terminated, totaling approximately $1.5 billion.