A federal judge said on Wednesday that the National Institutes of Health must continue to hold off on planned cuts to federal funding underpinning a variety of medical and scientific research while the court case plays out.
The order from Judge Angel Kelley, a Federal District Court judge for the district of Massachusetts, offers a reprieve for the universities and hospitals across the country that would see their work upended without the government’s support.
The dispute centers on the Trump administration’s planned change to the formulas the N.I.H. uses to allocate funding. The agency announced last month that it would cap what it calls “indirect funds,” money to cover costs like buildings, utilities and support staff, to 15 percent of the grant dollars it hands out.
The case, which combined three lawsuits brought by coalitions of Democratic states, universities, and medical associations, seeks to stop the Trump administration from carrying out that plan. The N.I.H. has said the cap would allow for more dollars to go to actual research.
But groups suing have argued that the plan would in reality devastate budgets at many schools and hospitals, which would be forced to abruptly shoulder the cost of maintaining the environments where research is conducted.
Judge Kelley had previously ordered a pause on any funding changes on Feb. 10, noting a number of cases where the proposed changes by the N.I.H. would imperil ongoing research.
“This notice impacts thousands of existing grants, totaling billions of dollars across all 50 states — a unilateral change over a weekend, without regard for ongoing research and clinical trials,” she wrote in her original order. “The imminent risk of halting lifesaving clinical trials, disrupting the development of innovative medical research and treatment, and shuttering of research facilities, without regard for current patient care, warranted the issuance of a nationwide temporary restraining order to maintain the status quo, until the matter could be fully addressed before the court.”
In the order on Wednesday, Judge Kelley concluded that those concerns remained valid, prompting her to order a preliminary injunction keeping any changes by the N.I.H. at bay until the court could work through the case.
She said her move was justified by the considerable “chaos and confusion” that would result from states and colleges attempting to challenge the new policy individually.
“Absent a nationwide injunction, institutions across the country will be forced to operate with the same uncertainty, resulting in the types of irreparable harm that a preliminary injunction is meant to prevent,” she wrote.