NIH funding cuts: Federal judge extends restraining order blocking Trump administration's action

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley of Massachusetts - who issued the initial restraining order last week - comes in response to separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions nationwide.  

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced earlier this month it would be cutting billions in costs associated with federally funded research grants that go to various institutions, as part of a wider move by the Trump administration to slash wasteful spending. 

The NIH, the main funder of biomedical research, awarded more than 60,000 grants last year totaling about $35 billion. The total is divided into "direct" costs - covering researchers' salaries and laboratory supplies - and "indirect" costs, the administrative and facility costs needed to support that work. 

The Trump administration had dismissed those expenses as "overhead" but universities and hospitals argue they're far more critical. They can include such things as electricity to operate sophisticated machinery, hazardous waste disposal, staff who ensure researchers follow safety rules and janitorial workers, according to The Associated Press. 

"Yet here we are again," attorneys argued in a court motion, saying the NIH is "in open defiance" of what Congress decreed. 

In its own written arguments, the Trump administration said NIH has authority to alter the terms after awarding grants and that Kelley's courtroom isn't the proper venue to arbitrate claims of breach of contract. 

States and researchers "have failed to show that they would suffer an irreparable injury," according to the administration motion. 

If the new policy stands, indirect costs would be capped at 15% immediately, for already awarded grants and new ones. NIH calculated that would save the agency $4 billion a year. 

Officials at Johns Hopkins University said the cuts would end or require significantly scaling back research projects, potentially including some of the 600 NIH-funded studies open to Hopkins patients. 

"The care, treatments and medical breakthroughs provided to them and their families are not 'overhead,'" university president Ron Daniels and Hopkins Medicine CEO Theodore DeWeese wrote to employees. 

"Can you believe that universities with tens of billions in endowments were siphoning off 60% of research award money for 'overhead'?" Musk posted on social media. "What a ripoff!" 

Fox News' Alec Schemmel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.