Trump Illegally Blocking NIH Funding, Top Government Watchdog Concludes
Murray responds as GAO finds Trump has illegally impounded enacted funding for 5th time in recent weeks
ICYMI last week: OMB chokes off virtually all NIH research funding, then reverses itself after decision is made public—but billions of dollars remain illegally impounded
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on a Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision issued today, which concludes that President Trump has illegally impounded research funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in violation of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA):
“Today’s decision affirms what we’ve known for months: President Trump is illegally blocking funding for medical research and shredding the hopes of patients across the country who are counting on NIH-backed research to propel new treatments and cures that could save their lives.
“Over the last six months, President Trump and his administration have done just about everything they can to wreck our nation’s medical research system, and they have dangerously set back our efforts to cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, and so much else. Cutting off investments Congress has made into research that saves millions of lives is as backward and as inexcusable as it gets.
“It is critical President Trump reverse course, stop decimating the NIH, and get every last bit of this funding out. Republicans must join Democrats in pressing on this urgent matter until this money gets out the door—light up the phones at the White House and insist that the president himself answer for this. The longer this goes on, the more clinical trials that will be cut short, labs that will shutter, and lifesaving research that will never see the light of day.”
In its decision today, the GAO concluded that:
“In accordance with several executive orders, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its agencies, including NIH, began canceling existing grants. HHS also issued a memorandum directing its agencies to cease the publication of grant review meeting notices in the Federal Register, a key step in NIH’s grant review process. As a result, NIH reduced its awarding of new grants. NIH’s actions to carry out these executive directives, coupled with publicly available data showing a decline in NIH’s obligations and expenditures, establishes that NIH intended to withhold budget authority from obligation and expenditure without regard to the process provided for by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA). …. Based on publicly available evidence and the lack of any special message pertaining to NIH funds, GAO concludes that NIH violated the ICA by withholding funds from obligation and expenditure. …. Between February and June of FY 2025, NIH obligated almost $8 billion less than it had in the same time period in FY 2024. Between February and June of FY 2025, NIH obligated 62 percent of what obligated between February and June of FY 2024, and 64 percent of what it had obligated between February and June of FY 2023. …. The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation. …. In short, NIH has offered no evidence that it did not withhold amounts from obligation or expenditure, and it has not shown that the delay was a permissible programmatic one. Therefore, we conclude that NIH withheld budget authority from obligation or expenditure in violation of the ICA. …. If the executive branch wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided to NIH, it must propose funds for rescission or otherwise propose legislation to make changes to the law for consideration by Congress.”
In addition to blocking billions of dollars in NIH funding from going out to institutions nationwide over the last six months, last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), helmed by Director Russ Vought, cut off roughly $15 billion in additional NIH funding through the end of the fiscal year. When the decision was made public, the Trump administration quickly reversed itself—but it continues to withhold billions of dollars in NIH funding with less than two months left in the fiscal year.
In its decision, GAO also highlighted how the Trump administration’s decision to pull down a public website detailing its spending decisions inhibited its ability to conduct its investigation—yet more evidence that claims by this administration of a commitment to radical transparency are a farce and another reminder of the importance that the website get restored, as the law requires and a court recently required the administration to do.
Presidents do not wield the power to unilaterally withhold or block investments that have been enacted into law through “impoundment.” This foundational principle has been affirmed time and again. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 makes this plain and establishes limited procedures the president can and must follow to propose delaying or rescinding enacted funding. The ICA also charges GAO with the responsibility of investigating and reporting to Congress when the president illegally withholds funding.
The GAO has now acknowledged that it has opened 46 impoundment investigations and counting.
Today’s announcement follows several other recent findings of impoundment:
- The GAO’s first decision in May in one of its ongoing investigations, which concluded Trump is illegally impounding funding for electric vehicle charging;
- Its subsequent investigation in June concluding Trump is illegally impounding funding for museums and libraries across America;
- Its recent July investigation finding Trump illegally impounded Head Start funding; and
- Another July decision finding Trump illegally blocked funding for K-12 to make energy efficiency upgrades.
The ICA authorizes the Comptroller General to file suit when the president illegally impounds funding.
Since his first hours in office, President Trump has illegally blocked funding owed to communities across the country through a variety of different means. Senate and House Appropriations Committee Democrats have been tracking Trump’s illegal funding freeze and found that, as of June 3, President Trump is blocking at least $425 billion in funding owed to the American people.
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