‘I didn’t take this job to terminate grants,’ Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told a Senate panel.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on June 10 that he hopes the Trump administration can reach settlements with universities whose research grants have been suspended.
“I’m very hopeful that these universities where these pauses have happened will come to terms so that we can move forward,” Bhattacharya told a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on health.
That includes Harvard University, he said. Administration officials have canceled billions in grants to Harvard after it declined to change policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and anti-Semitism.
Bhattacharya told senators he has worked to make sure certain grants, including for clinical trials, have not been paused.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had told the NIH director that he was concerned about universities not receiving funding for months.
The hearing in Washington saw Bhattacharya answer questions about the NIH’s budget, from which the administration has proposed cutting $19 billion, leaving the agency with $27.5 billion for fiscal year 2026.
During the hearing, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that the proposed reduction “is so disturbing” and that it “would undo years of congressional investment in NIH and it would delay or stop effective treatments and cures from being developed.”
There’s also a risk the United States will fall behind China and other countries in terms of biomedical research if the cuts are implemented, senators said.
Bhattacharya said in the hearing that he’s committed to helping the United States be the leading nation for biomedicine.
“From what I understand, this budget is a collaborative effort between Congress and the administration,” he said. “I look forward to working with you all to advance the needs, the real health needs … of all Americans.”
A group of NIH employees said this week that the agency has terminated 2,100 grants totaling some $9.5 billion, including some for clinical trials, as well as $2.6 billion in contracts.
“We’ve worked to make sure that no patients enrolled in the clinical trials are, have any delay in their care,” Bhattacharya told senators.
He also said that he’s set up a way for researchers to appeal canceled grants and that officials are quickly working through appeals that have been lodged.
“I’ve established a process for appeals for those grant terminations and decisions, and hundreds of people have appealed. It won’t take 18 months. It’ll take weeks to get through those appeals. We’ve reversed many of them,” he said. “I didn’t take this job to terminate grants.”
