Last Thursday, Senator Katie Britt (R-AL), along with 13 of her Republican colleagues, sent a letter to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, urging him to fully implement the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) appropriated funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The letter marks a potential turning point in Senate Republicans’ relationship with the Trump Administration, suggesting that at least one chamber of Congress may push back against the president’s attempts to hobble the U.S. biomedical and behavioral research enterprise.
Congress allocated approximately $46 billion in funds for NIH as part of the FY25 budget. As of July 24, about two months away from the end of this fiscal year, an estimated $15 billion of those funds had not yet been disbursed. Once the fiscal year closes on September 30, appropriated funds that have not been spent will be circulated back into the U.S. Treasury, completely bypassing Congress and undermining its power of the purse. Functionally withholding these funds threaten life-saving research, the economy, and the U.S.’s global leadership in science.
In the letter, Senator Britt—a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS)— and her colleagues expressed deep concern about the “slow disbursement rate of the FY25 NIH funds” and the risk it poses not only to critical research, but to the health and economic well-being of all Americans. While not explicitly stated in the letter, Congress also has reason to be concerned about the implications of funds not being implemented without a formal rescission request—namely that the Administration is circumventing or even usurping congressional authority. The delay of funding may also indicate other avenues the Trump Administration is pursuing to shrink the research budget as its FY26 request meets resistance in Congress.
Notably, Britt and five of the Republican signatories— Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Todd Young (R-IN), and Susan Collins (R-ME)—are from the six states that FABBS has prioritized for engagement efforts. FABBS has been working with scientists in these states to educate and meet with Congressional offices to communicate the value of federal funding for the behavior and brain sciences. We have asked our members in these states to thank their Senators for signing and encourage other FABBS members whose Senators have signed to do the same. In recent exchanges with these and other Hill offices, FABBS has repeatedly encouraged lawmakers to push for the release of appropriated science funding and we are grateful to this group for leading one such effort.
As of writing, OMB has not directly responded to the Republican Senators’ letter. However, the agency did send a memo to NIH on July 29—not released publically—directing leadership to release the remaining FY25 funds. But even this move did not go smoothly, as the memo included a footnote limiting how NIH could spend the funds. NIH leaders interpreted the footnote to mean that while money for salaries, administration, and Clinical Center expenses could be disbursed, research money could not. Later that same day, amidst public outcry, OMB confirmed that the funds should be released.
FABBS will continue to monitor this situation and work with congressional offices to ensure that federal science funding is protected going forward.
