"Budget chief Russell Vought reportedly wants more power to veto DEI-related funding"
"Biomedical researchers are on edge after news broke over the weekend that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) director clashed with President Donald Trump over a White House plan to turn over the agency’s final grant decisions to a new board co-chaired by Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought. Groups representing biomedical scientists and patients, as well as some Democratic lawmakers and a key Republican, were quick to decry what they fear will be increased politicization of NIH’s grantmaking process.
In an Oval Office meeting on Friday that was first revealed by The Washington Post, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Trump, Vought, and others reportedly discussed a proposed executive order (EO) establishing the board. The Post and other outlets reported that Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wants more power to veto grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and that Trump wants to halt funding to Harvard University, which the White House alleges has not done enough to stop antisemitic activities on campus. (Harvard won a lawsuit last year restoring grants Trump officials had frozen.)
The committee would be co-chaired by Bhattacharya and Vought and would need to unanimously vote to approve grants, according to Politico. Bhattacharya reportedly pushed back, refusing to cut Harvard’s NIH grants and defending his agency’s grantmaking process. (An NIH spokesperson confirmed the meeting took place but declined to comment on the substance of the discussion.)"
