Jay Bhattacharya Pushes Back On Trump Demand To Cut Harvard Grants

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya refused President Donald Trump’s directive to cut Harvard University’s federal research funding during a September 18 Oval Office meeting, according to a report first published by Politico and subsequently detailed by The Harvard Crimson.

Politico reported the discussion came as the administration considers putting political appointees in charge of decisions over NIH research grants.

According to Politico, Trump also directed Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to draft an executive order creating a board that would decide which NIH grants receive funding. Bhattacharya and Vought would serve on the proposed board, and decisions would require unanimous approval. The two have had simmering tensions for a while with Vought toeing the line of the President, according to media reports.

The arrangement would give Vought a direct role in allocating NIH funding, which receives about $48 billion in congressional appropriations, Politico reported.

The proposal follows an earlier effort by Vought to give political appointees greater control over NIH grants. Congress rejected that approach, with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, opposing Vought’s plan.

Bhattacharya’s refusal comes against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s campaign to cut Harvard’s federal funding. The administration moved last year to block nearly $2.7 billion in Harvard research funding, including hundreds of millions of dollars in NIH grants. Harvard challenged the cuts in court, and federal judges subsequently ordered the government to restore the funding, with the cases continuing on appeal.

The Crimson reported that Bhattacharya, a former Stanford colleague of Harvard President Alan M. Garber, has previously pushed to preserve federal research funding for Harvard-affiliated hospitals. He also was involved behind the scenes in efforts last year to broker a settlement between Harvard and the White House, according to Ashish K. Jha, the former dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.

Jha, who worked closely with both Bhattacharya and Garber, told The Crimson that he was not surprised by Bhattacharya’s refusal to cut Harvard’s funding.

“My conversations with people who are speaking directly with him is that he is starting to realize that he has gone too far, that he has acquiesced too much,” Jha told the newspaper. “I do think that has started happening in the last couple of months.”

Jha said Bhattacharya’s longstanding ties to Harvard researchers could also make the funding fight more personal for him.

Bhattacharya declined to comment when contacted by The Crimson, which published its report September 20.

The Crimson also reported that Harvard’s research funding had already been targeted by the administration through NIH grant terminations and a 15 percent cap on reimbursements for indirect research costs. The First Circuit later blocked the reimbursement cap.