27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 9/20/26

Written By Cara AB

Hi NIH Vigilers and 27 UNIHTED Community,

Don’t forget!  This Saturday, September 26, our SOS Health Vigil gathering will feature Dr. Jeremy Berg, former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), NIH, and multiple NIH community members discussing how the administration’s censorship of science has impacted their fields.  Lots has happened this week, and it's incredibly difficult to showcase how much of an emotional roller-coaster we have been on. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

- The Good -

Researchers sue NIH for violating their First Amendment rights by censoring words like “structural racism,” “gender,” and “climate change.”  The class action, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Protect Democracy, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and others, argues that delaying or terminating grants in order to censor banned words is unconstitutional and adds an ideological layer to scientific review.  In particular, the suit objects to a list of 235 keywords that are used to block grants from being funded.  “The Trump administration is weaponizing federal research funding to suppress disfavored views, pressuring scientists to censor their work or risk losing funding for research that might produce results that don’t conform to the administration’s ideology,” said Olga Akselrod, senior counsel in the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program.

Judge blocks DHS’s four-year visa cap on international students.  F-1 and J-1 visas normally allow foreign talent to remain in the U.S. until their training ends, which is usually longer than four years.  The court called the “national security” rationale as “border[ing] on the absurd.” In implementing the cap, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ignored 22,000 public comments and cost estimates of $72 to $145 billion over 10 years. 


Judge stalls forced relocation of 2,600 USDA employees.  Federal employee unions sued after the Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered workers to relocate out of the Washington DC metropolitan region to regional hubs or lose their jobs.  A federal court froze the plan through October 2, barring USDA from any termination or disciplinary act for declining to relocate. 

A federal judge ruled that a plan to slash staffing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by 50% is unlawful. A judge found that the plan violated protections established after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina that kept staffing decisions with FEMA rather than the Department of Homeland Security. The judge didn't order a specific remedy but directed the two sides to negotiate next steps. This lawsuit is part of a larger lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees and other labor groups.

More Good News

  • Republican Congressman Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for unlawfully waging war against Iran.  Speaker Mike Johnson chose to have the House of Representatives go into recess until after the midterm elections rather than vote on the articles.

- The Bad -

DOGE’s “efficiency” bill: $9.5 billion to pay people NOT to work.  The Government Accountability Office reported the cost of paid administrative leave in 2025 was ~$10 billion, a more than fourfold increase from 2023.  The “Deferred Resignation Program” alone cost $6.7 billion.  This is manufactured waste that leaves a civil service less experienced, understaffed, demoralized, and with reduced capacity to handle crises. 

NIH readies a clinical research program to investigate long-term side effects of vaccines.  The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is preparing to launch a new program to study claims of harms following vaccination as early as mid-October.  The program reportedly includes both intramural research to be performed by NIH staff on the Bethesda campus and grants to extramural scientists that would build on current studies of vaccine-related illnesses.  It is not known how much funding will be allocated to the new research program.  Some scientists applaud the new studies, saying they will fill gaps in our knowledge of the rare but sometimes serious complications that can follow vaccinations.  However, others worry that the research, if not conducted in an unbiased and scientifically sound way, will be used to fuel vaccine hesitancy.  HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of vaccine criticism and has led efforts to alter the childhood vaccination schedule.  Kennedy also recently assured vaccine critics that they “have a friend in the White House.”

NSF memo raises concerns.  Science magazine published an article this week outlining how proposed changes at the National Science Foundation (NSF) will damage scientific research.  A 10-page memo signed by acting director Brian Stone outlines how NSF will redirect a majority of its funding to Trump administration priorities.  Leslie Rissler, a former NSF administrator and now dean at the University of Montana, said that “the central question is not whether NSF should experiment with new mechanisms… It’s whether those initiatives will divert support from universities that maintain the laboratories, field stations, collections, graduate programs, and intellectual capacity on which science itself depends.”  The memo also seems to abandon NSF’s long-running attempt to broaden participation in science and engineering.  Some ideas in the memo are attractive, but NSF currently lacks the resources to implement them.  Adjusted for inflation, NSF’s budget is the same as it was 20 years ago, and Trump has proposed to cut it in half next year.  Layoffs and resignations have also depleted its staff.

It’s not just biology and medicine. Physics is suffering too.  Biomedical research is not the only branch of science that is suffering these days.  An editorial in Nature Physics claims that physics is hurt too.  “Physics research is suffering from new and proposed government policies that divert funds away from research, politicize funding decisions, and make it harder to collaborate or engage in the international community.”  The editorial concludes that “as a scientist, it can be tempting to think of one’s professional self as above politics, and it is easy to fall back on old adages that suggest we should stick to the science.  But ...failing to engage now will leave us with little science to which we can stick.”

RFK Jr claims anti-vaxers have a friend in the White House.  In a keynote address at the Children’s Health Defense Conference, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said to the group “let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House.  We’ve accomplished in 19 months things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago.”  Children’s Health Defense, an organization RFK Jr. once chaired, is a notorious anti-vaccine activist group. Mary Holland, the CEO of Children’s Health Defense, calls RFK Jr. “Bobby” and said the group has “gratitude beyond words ...[for] recognizing there are real consequential issues around childhood vaccinations.”  Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson also attended the conference.

The Pennsylvania measles outbreak intensifies.  The Pennsylvania measles outbreak resulted in a fourth death this week, an unvaccinated 18-year-old who died of the measles complication called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a neurological condition affecting the brain.  Pennsylvania has experienced 731 measles cases so far this year, and this week requested emergency assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  However, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health said that “the CDC’s choice to not publicly recognize the deaths undermines our response” after the CDC refused to list the recent deaths on its website.  

- The Ugly -

Trump considering Executive Order to give political appointees power over NIH grants.  Politico reports that President Trump has asked Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought to draft an Executive Order creating a board of political appointees to make NIH grant funding decisions.  Vought would be a member of the board, as would NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya, and grant awards would require unanimous board approval to move forward.  This news stems from an acrimonious September 18 White House meeting first reported by The Washington Post, where Vought and Bhattacharya sparred over NIH’s funding of what Vought considered “woke” grants.  Politico reports that at this same meeting, the President demanded that Bhattacharya cut Harvard’s grant funding as part of his feud with the university.  Bhattacharya reportedly refused, and the President then asked Vought to draft an Executive Order creating the NIH oversight board.  If created, such a board would be a sweeping political takeover of NIH’s mission to support scientific research, giving the head of OMB and any other board appointees veto power over every NIH grant.

RFK Jr. overhauls USPSTF membership.  HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced appointments of eight new members to the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force, whose decisions affect health care throughout the United States.  The new members’ backgrounds suggest that RFK Jr. may be trying to fill the task force with people who agree with his political ideology.  For instance, two new members oppose gender-affirming care for transgender teenagers and two have spoken out against Covid vaccines.

Kennedy is stacking science advisory panels with loyalists. NICHD Director John Gaitanis, a vaccine-injury expert witness and pusher of unproven treatments, will chair the autism advisory committee, replacing evidence-based chair Sylvia Fogel. 

Census Bureau wants to stop counting who we are. The administration's 2030 census proposal would eliminate race and ethnicity questions entirely, while adding a citizenship question and excluding undocumented residents from apportionment counts, a break with the 14th Amendment's plain text on counting “the whole number of persons.”  Public comment closes October 13.

Leadership Watch  

Nominee for Surgeon General Nicole Saphier testifies before the senate HELP committee

On Wednesday, the nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Nicole Saphier, was questioned by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).  In response to a question by Senator Bill Cassidy about vaccines, Saphier said “I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal.  I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.”  Her response to a question from Cassidy about a birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine was “hepatitis B vaccines are one of the most tangible ways we have to prevent cancer.”  Cassidy also inquired about her views on vaccines and autism.  She answered “I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.”  When asked by Senator Maggie Hassan if she would break the law if President Trump asked her to, she said “I have no intention of breaking the law.”  Sen. John Hickenlooper asked Saphier how she would “preserve the integrity and the independence of scientists and health experts who are working in your agencies.”  She responded “I will do everything I can to preserve the integrity of those around me, those within the department.” If Saphier is confirmed, we will watch closely to see if she acts according to her testimony or acquiesces to the administration.

Jonathan Burke appointed as director of NIDCR 

NIH Director Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya announced that Dr. Jonathan Burke would take the helm of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) on September 20.  Dr. Burke is a practicing dentist and a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon who currently serves as the medical director of a consulting firm in Philadelphia.  He also served as an assistant professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and as a clinical assistant professor at Temple University School of Dentistry.  Burke’s scientific contributions include authorship of a few case studies on craniofacial trauma earlier in his career.  He does not appear to have a history of NIH research funding, according to the public NIH RePORTER database.  Burke will now manage NIDCR’s over $520 million annual budget and its portfolio of ~750 awards supporting basic, translational, and clinical research.

Josh Denny steps down from leading All of Us

Josh Denny will step down as head of NIH’s All of Us Research Program on Oct. 31 to take a position at the University of Chicago.  Stephanie Devaney will serve as acting Chief Executive Officer while NIH conducts a search for Denny’s successor.  All of Us is a database of genetic and health information from a million volunteers.

Calls to Action:

Wondering how to write a public comment for the Federal Register?  Find commenting guidance at Regulations.gov.

NEW Weigh in on OPM's plan to shrink your FEHB plan options. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has opened a Request for Information asking whether it should limit or restructure the health plan choices available through the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. Currently plans offer three options or two options plus a high-deductible option health plan. OPM is exploring whether to change the number or the types of health plans that will be offered. Comments are due by November 16. If you're a federal employee or in a fed family, please comment about what you do or don't like about the current FEHB system. 

REOPENED Comment on OPM's “Promoting Employee Accountability” rule.  OPM reopened the comment window on its proposed rule making it easier for agencies to remove employees for poor performance or misconduct, citing new agency data and an outside report. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB)'s proposed rule, “Promoting Employee Accountability” (docket OPM-2025-0012), would significantly shorten reply deadlines, scrap the mandatory factors determining discipline for a vaguer “totality of the circumstances” test, and restrict settlement agreements that let employees resolve disputes without a tainted personnel record. This is another opportunity for you to push back on a policy that will affect Civil Service protections. Comments are limited to addressing the newly released data and must be submitted through Regulations.gov or the Federal Register listing by September 29.

Sign on against the VA's Oracle records rollout. As covered in a recent issue of this newsletter, the cost of the Oracle contract to replace the Department of Veterans Affairs medical records system has ballooned from $10 billion to nearly $27 billion, with more than 11,000 lost orders and referrals, and at least one case where the system's failures were implicated in a veteran's cancer spreading undetected. Stop the Rollout tracks the damage and offers ways to take action.

Upcoming Events:

27 UNIHTED / NIH community events

  • Weekly NIH Vigil every Saturday at 10:00 am.

    • Special Vigil, September 26:  Join us for the “SOS for Health” rally on September 26th. Former NIGMS Director and activist, Jeremy Berg, will be speaking. More details to come!

    • No Kings Vigil, October 17:  Join us for a special Vigil as a part of the “No Kings Vote Early—America Belongs to the People” event!

  • Weekly peer empowerment call every Thursday at 6:00 pm.

    Community Events

  • Dr. Kristian Andersen presents “On Viral Emergence and the Origins of Pandemics,” Tuesday, October 6, 2 pm, Building 40, NIH campus. Those without campus access who wish to attend, contact Lee Eiden for information on registering as a guest.

  • Crow’s Nest Baltimore is showing “22 Federal Workers”: a virtual exhibition of oil portraits by NIHer and artist “Paint Brains” honoring federal workers and their public-service contributions. On display online through October 10. 

Wellness Weekly

Our somewhat serious community recommendations for self-care are:

  • Write a strongly worded letter of concern to no one in particular, then shred it.

  • Reorganize one drawer, shelf, or inbox folder until it sparks something resembling joy.

  • Call the one friend who always makes you laugh, and let them.

In solidarity,

27 UNIHTED and NIH Vigils

Cara AB
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27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 9/13/26