The Trump administration has broken the law by withholding funds that Congress had allocated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
By canceling existing grants and reducing new grant awards, the NIH violated a law called the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, according to the independent government agency.
As set out in the U.S. Constitution, Congress exercises the so-called "power of the purse.” The 1974 law prohibits presidents from withholding Congress-appropriated money.
Related to the NIH, Congress allocated money for the medical research agency to use in the fiscal year 2025.
However, under several executive orders delivered by President Donald Trump, federal health agencies began terminating existing grants earlier this year. The NIH was also directed to stop a critical step in grant processes in which grant review meeting notices are published in the Federal Register.
Subsequently, new NIH grant awards declined. In under 40 days, the Trump administration terminated $1.8 billion in NIH grants, according to research published by JAMA in May.
“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,” the congressional watchdog GAO said on Aug. 5.
The purpose behind the 1974 law is to make sure “reserving funds does not become a vehicle for furthering administration policies and priorities at the expense of those decided by Congress," according to GAO.
“Unless Congress has enacted a law providing otherwise, executive branch officials must take care to ensure that they prudently obligate appropriations during their period of availability,” GAO explained.
The office's decisions are non-binding but are designed to provide Congress with objective, non-partisan analysis and recommendations.
NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told GAO that it had lifted the pause related to the publication of notice submissions and resumed scheduling meetings, according to the watchdog agency.
However, HHS’ didn’t address its current obligations of awarding NIH funds or provide sufficient justification for the actions, according to the GAO.
The accountability office acknowledged the ongoing lawsuits related to NIH grant terminations in which HHS has claimed that it was authorized to cancel the funding. GAO said it would update its decision if a court made relevant decisions related to the matter.
As of publication, HHS has not responded to Fierce’s request for comment.
Numerous organizations, universities and states have sued the agency over the grant changes.
In June, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that hundreds of grants were terminated illegally and had to be restored immediately. At the time, HHS said it was considering an appeal.