Minnesota Attorney General sues Trump Administration for cuts to medical and public health research
Acquired Through MGN Online on 06/01/2020
(ABC 6 News) – Attorney General Keith Ellison is co-leading 22 state attorneys general in suing the Trump Administration’s cuts to funding for health research.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health are also being targeted by the coalition. It comes as the Trump Administration looks to cut “indirect cost” reimbursements at research institutes across the country.
Those reimbursements cover expenses like lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs to support biomedical research. Indirect cost reimbursements are based on each institution’s needs, negotiated with the federal government, and memorialized in an executed agreement.
On Friday, the NIH announced it would slash rates across the board to 15% effective as of Monday, February 10th.
The lawsuit filed on Monday argues this action violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits the NIH from requiring indiscriminate changes to indirect cost reimbursements. The coalition seeks to bar the action.