Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, urged the Trump administration on September 22 not to move forward with a reported plan that would give a board including political appointees final say over grants from the National Institutes of Health, joining Democrats who have criticized the idea. No executive order had been issued as of September 23.
The proposal would add a layer above the system that decides which medical research gets federal money, including studies of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and rare conditions. NIH, with a budget of about $47 billion, is the largest funder of biomedical research at U.S. colleges and universities.
