GOP Sens Worried About Trump’s NIH Cuts Turn To Limp Public Negotiations With RFK, Trump

Earlier this month, the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to a key way in which the National Institutes of Health funds major research institutions across the country. As the country has scrambled to understand the implications of the directive, many Republicans are hearing from their constituents — and walking a tight rope: They’re publicly expressing concerns about the damage the cuts will do to crucial medical research in their home states while also praising Donald Trump and RFK Jr., the newly confirmed Health and Human Services secretary, for halting funding in the first place. 

NIH announced on Feb. 7 that the agency would be making cuts to grants that support major research institutions by limiting the amount of indirect funding — which covers expenses like equipment, operations, maintenance, accounting and personnel — for research projects. The Trump administration’s move to limit already agreed-upon funding that universities and health institutions receive to bolster research was immediately met with lawsuits — one filed by nearly two dozen state attorneys general and another brought by a group of university associations and major research centers — aiming to halt the cuts.

A federal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order last week pausing the policy as the cases move forward, but if the cuts are successfully implemented, it would significantly cripple the ability to continue crucial research in key states and even slow down scientific breakthroughs.

The widespread outcry over the NIH cuts marks one of the first bipartisan points of resistance — albeit, from Republicans, tepid resistance — to the Trump administration’s destructive effort to shrink the federal government, as Elon Musk and his DOGE cronies bust in to federal agencies and freeze spending. 

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) was the first Republican to express concerns about the impact the cuts will have on major medical research in her state. The University of Alabama Birmingham and Huntsville are both major employers and have received at least a billion dollars in NIH funding in recent years. 

After the cuts were first announced, Britt went to AL.com, a statewide newspaper, promising to negotiate with now-HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and the Trump administration to ensure Alabama doesn’t lose all of its funding. 

“Every cent of hard-earned taxpayer money should be spent efficiently, judiciously, and accountably — without exception,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) told AL.com earlier this month.

“While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama,” she added.

Other Senate Republicans have found themselves in a similar position of attempting to publicly negotiate back crucial funding for medical research in their states through the only tactic that has been shown work: praising Trump and Musk for their supposed ingenuity in imposing the cuts, while subtly acknowledging the devastating impact it’ll have on major medical research in their states. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told TPM in a conversation last week that he thinks funding that might help crack the code for diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS is particularly “important.”

“There’s so many things that the government does that they don’t need to do, in my opinion. But there are a few things that if the government didn’t do it, they wouldn’t be done,” Cramer said, referring to investments in medical research.

But, in the meantime, he hastened to add that he is not worried that important research and even possible cures might be delayed due to lack of funding.

Cramer said he thinks “it’s worth taking a pause and getting it restarted the right way.”

“My hope is, once this is all rebalanced, that we would dare to imagine that with the collective resources of the generous taxpayers of the country and private enterprise and others that we could actually really, really invest in the type of research that solves big health care problems,” he told TPM.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who is the chairman of the Senate committee overseeing the NIH, walked a similar line in discussing his unease with the Trump administration plan. He told STAT News he has “heard loud and clear” that “Louisiana will suffer from these cuts” and that “research that benefits people in Louisiana may not be done.”

But, Cassidy added, some reform might still be necessary.

“I do not want all the NIH money to be going to Massachusetts and California. I want it to as well come to Louisiana,” he said. “So, that said, there might be some areas to reform.”

Democrats are, of course, locked out of power and increasingly vocal about the dire situation Musk and Trump are creating with the ongoing purge of federal staff and resources.

“I’m obviously opposed,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told TPM when asked about the cuts to NIH funding. “I’ve long been an advocate of health research. Dollar for dollar, NIH is one of the best investments we make.” 

Wyden added he was “struck by how many Republicans” were vocal and making “comments reflecting their concern.”