U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Monday blasted the Trump administration for its proposed funding cuts for biomedical research.
The Trump administration on Friday said it would cap reimbursement for “indirect costs” for National Institutes of Health grants at 15 percent, down from 27-28 percent on average, according to Reuters.
That was slated to go into effect Monday.
“There is no investment that pays greater dividends to American families than our investment in biomedical research,” Collins said in a statement, calling the cap “poorly conceived” and “arbitrary.”
She said that the cuts would be “devastating” to research at The Jackson Laboratory, the University of Maine, Maine Medical Center’s Research Institute, the University of New England and MDI Biological Laboratory.
The National Institutes of Health spent about $35 billion on grants to research institutions during the 2023 fiscal year. Reimbursement for indirect costs, which includes lab, facility, faculty, infrastructure and utility costs, accounted for about $9 billion of that. The Trump administration estimates the change would save $4 billion a year, according to Reuters.
In response to the move, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey joined 21 other state attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to prevent that change from going ahead.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, argues the Trump administration has violated a federal law passed during President Donald Trump’s first term to prevent a similar move.
Beyond leading to suspended clinical trials, disrupting research, closing labs and cutting jobs, the reimbursement cap could compromise U.S. leadership in lifesaving medical research, the attorneys general argue.
“The NIH funds critical public health research throughout the country and right here in Maine,” Frey said in a statement. “While the drastic slashing of this funding is being branded an ‘overhead’ savings, it in fact threatens to cripple vital research into areas that touch the lives of many Mainers, including cancer treatment, infectious diseases, neuromuscular disorders, aging, and addiction. The loss of NIH funds will also impact Maine-based organizations that employ Mainers and attract new talent to our state. For these reasons, I have joined other attorneys general in suing the Trump Administration to block its unlawful attempt to cut NIH funding.”
Frey is joined in the lawsuit by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
On Monday, Collins said that she raised concerns about the change with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health. Collins said that Kennedy promised to reexamine the change once confirmed as health secretary.