The White House and the Office of Management and Budget are seeking to centralize control over billions of dollars in federal research grants, according to a report Wednesday from NPR. The proposed change would affect grant programs across multiple federal agencies, including those covering housing and transportation, but science and health funding would be the most significantly altered.
Under the plan, authority over grant decisions would shift from agency program officers and peer-review panels to political appointees within the executive branch, according to the report. Scientists and advocates told NPR that the move, if implemented, would undermine the integrity of U.S. scientific research by introducing political considerations into funding decisions that have historically been driven by scientific merit.
The report did not specify the exact mechanism the White House and OMB would use to assert control, but described the initiative as a broad effort to bring federal grant spending under tighter executive oversight. The change could affect funding streams that flow through agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.
The Trump administration has taken a series of steps to reshape federal science funding in recent months. In April, it fired three members of the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. In May, it suspended research grants at UC Berkeley. The new grant-control proposal, if enacted, would represent the most sweeping centralization of science funding authority in the executive branch in decades.