TRO granted as 22 States sue to block cuts to NIH Funding

STAT News:  TRO granted as 22 States sue to block cuts to NIH Funding

By Jonathan Wosen and Angus Chen 

Feb. 10, 2025

UPDATE: U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, in  has granted an ex parte  TRO restraining the Trump administration's cuts in National Institutes of Health research funding.  The matter will be heard on Friday, February 14.

Attorneys general representing 22 states sued the Trump administration on Monday, asking a federal judge to temporarily block a major policy change by the National Institutes of Health that would substantially limit payments for research overhead to universities, medical centers, and other grant recipients.

In the lawsuit,  filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 22 state Attorneys General argued that NIH’s abrupt decision to set a 15% cap* on payments for indirect costs — administrative and facility costs linked to research — would cause major harm to institution budgets, jeopardizing basic operations and medical research.“The effects of the Rate Change Notice will be immediate and devastating,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit. “This agency action will result in layoffs, suspension of clinical trials, disruption of ongoing research programs, and laboratory programs.” That the judge granted an ex parte temporary restraining order [^^see above^^] against the United States is evidence of the gravity of the threatened harm. 

* Notice Number NOTOD-25-068, Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates