As the Trump administration concludes the country's medical research funding device in recent months, scientists and administrators at the National Institutes of Health have often wondered how much autonomy Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the institution, had.
After all, the government's efficiency, Elon Musk's signature cost reduction project, helped to facilitate decisions to cancel or delay research grants. Other projects have fallen victim to President Trump's showdown with the university on anti-Semitism. But before a Senate committee on Tuesday, Dr Bhatacharya, given the opportunity to dispel doubts about who will take influence at the NIH, has barely claimed ownership in the institution's decades of fundraising research institutions.
The decision to freeze grant payments to Northwestern University “it happened before I took office,” Dr. Bhatacharya told the panel, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He repeatedly stated that the proposal to reduce the NIH budget to $18 billion (nearly 40%) was “congress-administrator cooperation,” and declined to provide a detailed explanation of how the cuts would affect the institutions.
And the costs between research forced them to try to cut funding to the university – a cost-cutting move burned into the administration's 2026 budget proposal – Dr Bhattacharya cited the ongoing lawsuit, saying, “I don't want to get into it.”
Several Democrats on the committee said they were confused as to who is pulling the string at the agency.
“I want to know, who's withholding this fund?” cited Democrat Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, evidence that the NIH had reduced its grants to the previous year by billions of dollars. “Is it you? Is it doge? Is it omb?” she added, referring to the Bureau of Management and Budget. “Who is making those decisions?”
Dr. Bhattacharya said, “I think there are many different decisions. For example, he was his call to move away from what is called “politicized science.” He is a term he used in the past to describe research related to issues of diversity and equity. However, he said limiting research funding at Harvard University and other major institutions was “cooperative with the administration.”
Another Democrat, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, responded sharply after Dr. Bhatacharya denied responsibility for paying for the frozen study to Northwestern.
An email from an NIH staff in mid-April, weeks after Dr. Bhattacharya's confirmation, directed employees not to issue grants to Northwestern and several other universities, and not to inform the institution of the reasons for the funds being frozen.
“The back will stop at your office,” Durbin told Dr. Bhatacharya. “Don't blame others.”
The Trump administration's efforts to significantly reduce agency spending next year have attracted criticism from both parties, including Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
The proposed reductions are “very intrusive,” she told Dr. Bhatacharya. “It will either delay or stop effective treatments and treatments from developing for diseases like Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and type 1 diabetes,” she said, putting the US at risk of “lagging behind China.”
Dr. Bhattacharya said the NIH is working on research into Alzheimer's and other diseases and will work with lawmakers to address “the health needs of all Americans.”
The director opened the door to an agreement between the Trump administration and major universities that would remove funding for medical research, but did not provide details about the outlook for such an agreement or what it takes to arrive. “I am very excited to see a resolution come with the universities where those grants have been suspended,” he said.
In recent years, NIH has suddenly ended more than 1,300 grant awards and delayed funding for more than 1,000 other projects. On Monday, NIH employee scores signed their names in a letter that these behaviors were based on ideological preferences and without the opinion of science staff, effectively censoring research on issues regarding health disparities, covid, climate change and sexual health impacts.
Dr Bhatacharya said Tuesday that scientists have set up a process for appealing for funding cuts. He said the agency will appeal within weeks.
