BALTIMORE, Md. — Maryland Attorney General, Anthony Brown, is joining other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration for its "unlawful attempt to disrupt grant funding issues by the National Institutes of Health".
“The Trump administration’s reckless and politically motivated interference with NIH grant funding is an attack on the very institutions that power scientific innovation and medical breakthroughs,” said Attorney General Brown. “This administration is jeopardizing public health and undermining decades of scientific progress with its shameless disregard for the truth and the well-being of our communities. We will not let this egregious assault on science and public health go unchecked.”
The cuts in funding are impacting several Maryland research facilities.
Normally, grant applications from the NIH would go through two layers of review. Since January, meetings for the review bodies have been canceled by the administration, which has delayed the scheduling of future meetings.
The coalition of states argues that postponing the meetings and delaying the review of pending applications means the NIH has failed to meet statutory obligations and has violated regulations.
The coalition wants the court to compel the administration to review and issue decisions on the delayed grant applications and stop the termination of grants already awarded.
As an example, 11 grants, amounting to roughly $15 million in research funding to the University of Maryland Baltimore, and 9 grants to the University of Maryland College Park, have already been terminated.
The other states involved in this suit are California, Washington, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
On February 10th, Attorney Brown joined another lawsuit, targeting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), accusing them of "unlawfully cutting funds" for health research at universities around the country.
