Court Pause on Trump Cuts to Medical Research Funds Is Expanded Nationwide

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to hold off on a plan that would cut $4 billion in federal funding for research at the nation’s universities, cancer centers and hospitals. The funds disbursed by the National Institutes of Health cover the administrative and overhead costs for a vast swath of biomedical research, some of which is directed at tackling diseases like cardiovascular conditions, cancer and diabetes. The order was issued by Judge Angel Kelley for the U.S. District Court in Boston late Monday night in response to a lawsuit filed by university associations and major research centers that had argued that the “flagrantly unlawful action” by U.S. health officials “will devastate medical research at America’s universities.”