27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 7/19/26

Written By Cara AB

Hi NIH Vigilers and 27 UNIHTED Community,

How is our research ecosystem faring?  Here are this week’s highlights:

Vigil “Auntie” News 

- The Good -

Science community shows up in force to oppose Vought’s proposed OMB rule. The 412-page rewrite of rules governing more than $1 trillion per year in federal grants covers everything, from research to education, transportation, safety, and more.  It would require grants to align with White House priorities, let political appointees override expert review, and allow agencies to cancel awards on a whim.  The public delivered a record-setting number of comments. Of those comment made public, 95% were opposed.  The comment period ended, but our work is not done to protect science, democracy and the public.  Contact your legislators to urge them to stop the proposed OMB rule and impeach Vought. 

Plans to turn primate research facility into sanctuary are stymied.  NIH and the Oregon Health and Science University have been involved in controversial negotiations to convert the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) from a research resource into a refuge due to the NIH move away from the use of animal models and the new emphasis on non-animal models.  However, many areas of research including fertility, pregnancy, dementia, behavior, and disease transmission require live animals.  These are among the studies that were being conducted at ONPRC.  Not surprisingly, the cost of terminating or moving these studies would be prohibitive, and apparently decisionmakers did not consider the fact that NIH does not fund animal sanctuaries.  No other funding for the $200 million that a sanctuary would cost could be identified, so while the ultimate fate of both the facility and the studies are uncertain, ONPRC remains a research facility for now. 

New federal funding for public health and biomedical research.  SAMHSA opened $281 million in funding opportunities across 15 behavioral health grant programs.  ARPA-H awarded up to $160 million to develop personalized treatments and clinical trial models for rare pediatric diseases.  CIDRAP’s Vaccine Integrity Project and The Evidence Collective launched new research efforts to strengthen evidence-based vaccine policy.

More good news:

  • A judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the Trump administration Office of Management and Budget (OMB), ruling that federal law does not allow the “terminations of awards based on new program goals or agency priorities that an agency identifies after granting the award.” 

  • A proposed rule to disallow Medicaid/Medicare from hospitals performing gender-affirming care has been “shelved” by the Trump administration after receiving 30,000 public comments, mostly in opposition.

  • A judge ruled that the firing of the FEMA CFO was illegal because it did not follow congressional procedures for firing civil servants.  The Trump administration argued that they are within their right to fire this official, but Judge Michael Nachmanoff ruled not to overturn an 1886 Supreme Court precedent giving Congress the power to manage “inferior” Executive Branch officials. 

  • An independent arbiter, Robert T. Simmelkjaer, has found that the Forest Service violated union contracts last year when telework and remote privileges were cancelled.  The National Federation of Federal Employees argued that the removal disregarded existing collective bargaining rights, while the administration argued it was within their right as a “business change.”  The arbiter disagreed with the agency.  A final ruling remains to be seen. 

  • Democratic members of Congress sent a letter requesting answers to several questions regarding the reclassification of 8,000 federal employees to Schedule Policy/Career, a status that removes traditional federal worker protections established under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and strengthened by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.  Questions included the reason for the reclassifications, the assurance of whistleblower protections for reclassified employees, and future plans for additional position conversions.  

- The Bad -

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants to screen troops for low testosterone.  This new policy, announced via social media, would authorize testosterone screening for all service members over age 30.  Presumably, women will be excepted, but the secretary’s video made no mention of female service members.  Given that testosterone treatment is a form of gender-affirming care, the policy contradicts Hegseth’s own bans of such care in the military. 

“Trumparrhea:” nation-wide outbreak of cyclosporiasis continues to spread after CDC cuts.  The CDC has confirmed 1,645 domestic cases of the parasite.  A rapid and effective response to this outbreak has likely been impeded by federal workforce reductions, according to Joel Barratt, a molecular parasitologist at Emory University and former leader of the CDC parasite surveillance team.

CDC nominee tanks in confirmation hearing.  Many in the public health community were cautiously optimistic about the nomination of Erica Schwartz for CDC Director, given her strong credentials.  But during her confirmation hearing, she refused to say she would defend science in the face of partisan, ideological orders.  Schwartz had trouble answering committee member questions about her independence from political influence and ability to stand firm on scientific decisions even if they ran contrary to the administration’s narrative.  While Schwartz promised to “follow the science,” it was not clear that she convinced Health Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy that she would be the CDC Director who would “actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said.”  She also continually responded that she would not be asked by this administration to go against science, a claim that is hard to believe given that is exactly what was asked of the prior director. 

- The Ugly -

National Science Foundation may gut core research to fund White House whims.  NSF is reportedly preparing to claw back ~$500 million from its engineering, computer science, math, and physical sciences directorates, forcing NSF to withdraw grant proposals that had passed peer review and were nearing approval.  The money may be going to the White House instead, to an unnamed project of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.  

Agencies tasked with finding more workers to fire at will.  OPM is reportedly planning to expand the positions being reclassified to Schedule Policy/Career (P/C), removing their civil service worker protections, by the end of September.  Agencies report pressure to expand the number of reclassifications; OPM is asking them to grow the number of feds converted to Schedule P/C from 8,000 to the OPM target of 50,000, making career feds do their dirty work.

Inside Kennedy’s plans to co-opt U.S. health research.  Recent reporting reveals that while the harm to U.S. health, health research, and health systems under the current administration has been extensive, it could have been even worse.  Kennedy has successfully derailed many aspects of vaccine research and development, especially regarding mRNA vaccines and COVID shots.  While he has not received pushback on those changes from NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya was successful in dissuading Kennedy from diverting $5 billion in NIH funding to study debunked links between vaccinations and autism.  This provides little comfort in the face of all the ways in which this administration is intentionally undermining the public’s faith in vaccines. 

In Related News: 

Trump lies about election security in Thursday night speech, pushing the problematic SAVE Act and undermining election confidence in advance of November elections unlikely to favor his preferred candidates.

More Americans murdered by ICE.  Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero were killed by the unrestrained violence of ICE officers.  One of the murdering agents had a known history of violence prior to being hired by ICE.

Science Interrupted: 

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grants terminated.  More than 44 AHRQ grants covering a wide range of topics were abruptly cancelled midstream, nominally to redirect funding toward RFK Jr.’s pet projects.  In some cases, the grants cancelled did align with “agency priorities” despite the language used by the administration to justify awardees not receiving their next year of funding.  Recipients report being caught completely off guard by the discontinuation. 

Examples of terminated studies include:

  • A randomized controlled trial testing strategies to improve antibiotic stewardship across 40 hospitals to reduce antibiotic resistance 

  • Research to understand medical debt and financial challenges in the wake of illness or injury

  • Research training programs designed to build the scientific workforce of the future 

Reflection from the Community

This week, we are pulling quotes from organizational comments on Vought’s proposed OMB rule.

27 UNIHTED: “The proposed rule threatens scientific progress by enabling arbitrary grant terminations and interruptions without opportunity to appeal.  This will result in an inability to support long-term projects that move science from bench to bedside, a major goal of NIH-funded research.”

American Civil Liberties Union: “The Proposed Rule is a thinly veiled attempt to usurp congressional authority and consolidate power over all federal funding programs within the Executive Office of the President in order to aggressively impose the administration’s political agenda over congressionally established mandates.  The Proposed Rule runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution, including separation of powers principles, the Spending Clause, federalism principles, and the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.”

American Society of Human Genetics: “A regulation that explicitly bars agencies from relying on expert judgment is inconsistent with the statutes that established those agencies and defined their missions.”

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: “Taken together, this rule will impede the federal research enterprise, stifle innovation, limit access to proven health interventions, and would risk not only American’s health but also accelerate the ongoing loss of American leadership in biomedical research as talent and capital move to countries with more predictable research environments.”

National Academy of Medicine: “Global health threats do not operate neatly within borders, and neither can the science required to address them.  [These] Provisions… would isolate American investigators from international collaborations, cohorts, and data-sharing arrangements that are essential for pandemic preparedness, vaccine development, therapeutic innovation, and rare-disease research, among other important national priorities.”

Upcoming Events

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Calls To Action

Add your name (or anonymous voice) on the petition to urge Congress to impeach OMB Director Russell Vought for unlawfully dismantling government services Americans rely on.  WE’VE PASSED OUR 2,000 SIGNATURE GOAL!  Letter delivery coming soon. www.impeachvought.com/

Should NIH limit the number of simultaneously held research grants?

NIH has posted a new Request for Information notice that suggests limiting the number of research project grants (RPGs) that an individual investigator can hold simultaneously.  The intention is reasonable–to allow a larger number of researchers the opportunity to pursue their research ideas.  The suggested limits are 2, 3, or 4.  It is important to note that the proposal does not indicate exceptions for small grants or multiple PI grants.  Researchers’ feedback on this proposal seems to be mixed, so if you want to share your thoughts, submit your feedback by August 4.

Endorse the Bethesda Declaration - One Year Later

A year after the release of the original Bethesda Declaration, NIH staff remain concerned.  The chaos of 2025 has been replaced with coordinated, systematic, institutionalized destruction in 2026.  If you share these concerns, be counted as a supporter of the Bethesda Declaration: One Year Later.  Learn more about the Bethesda Declaration Movement on 27 UNIHTED's Bethesda Declaration Hub.

Stand with EPA scientists

100+ EPA employees were fired for signing a Declaration of Dissent raising concerns about their working environment and recent policy changes.  Sign the petition to support these silenced staff members who were retaliated against for speaking out to protect science and public health.  Currently at 573 signatures.

Sign on for Scientific Integrity

The Union of Concerned Scientists has drafted a letter of support for the Scientific Integrity Act, which has been reintroduced to the Senate.  Let our leaders know that evidence-based decision-making is important to you by signing The Momentum for Scientific Integrity Action here.

Stand up for the National Science Board

On April 25, the Trump administration dismissed all sitting members of the National Science Board, an independent advisory group for the National Science Foundation.  Sign this open letter to Congress from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (NASEM), asking for the reinstatement of fired members and appointments for all vacant positions.  27 UNIHTED has added its organizational endorsement.  Currently at 3,489 public endorsements.

Reach out to your members of Congress about issues that matter to you. 

Some possible topics:

Help the NIH Community: Review a resume, host a job workshop, plan a happy hour, volunteer, and/or advocate with 27 UNIHTED.  Check out the links on our website to take action and volunteer. 

Wellness Weekly

Our somewhat serious community recommendations for self-care are:

  • Play an album you loved in high school

  • Make bread from scratch by hand (do the kneading yourself or it doesn't provide the therapy)

  • Take a long, hot shower—or a short, cold one if you are in this heat with no AC

In solidarity,

27 UNIHTED and NIH Vigils

Cara AB
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27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 7/12/26