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A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to hold off on a plan that would cut $4 billion in federal funding for research at the nation’s universities, cancer centers and hospitals.
The funds disbursed by the National Institutes of Health cover the administrative and overhead costs for a vast swath of biomedical research, some of which is directed at tackling diseases like cardiovascular, cancer and diabetes.
The order was issued by Judge Angel Kelley for the U.S. District Court in Boston late Monday night in response to a lawsuit filed by university associations and major research centers that had argued that the “flagrantly unlawful action” by U.S. health officials “will devastate medical research at America’s universities.”
The temporary restraining order by Judge Kelley, a Biden appointee, expanded on a similar order that was granted earlier Monday after nearly two dozen attorneys general sued to stop the cuts in their states.
The Trump administration’s plan to cap agreed-upon payments that universities and health systems receive to support research rocked the academic medical world when it was abruptly announced Friday.
Academic researchers and university officials predicted that the plan would shut down valuable studies, cost thousands of jobs and kneecap the United States in competitive efforts to achieve medical breakthroughs.