A Republican senator denounced a White House Office of Management and Budget proposal that would overhaul federal grant management, warning it could jeopardize patient care and impede biomedical research.
In a July 6 letter, Sen. Susan Collins (R‑Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the rule would impose new, burdensome requirements on grant recipients, harming small and rural communities, undermining scientific and biomedical research, and conflicting with Congress’s authority over federal funding.
She urged OMB Director Russell Vought to scrap problematic sections of the proposal and extend the comment period by at least 90 days to enable meaningful stakeholder input.
Collins objected specifically to a provision that lets agencies terminate discretionary grants whenever they deem it in their best interest—even when the award fails to meet program goals or agency priorities.
She pointed out that earlier versions of the guidance allowed agencies to include termination language for misaligned awards at their discretion, whereas the new rule eliminates that flexibility and also does away with administrative hearings that would let recipients appeal such decisions.
Collins warned that allowing terminations with little recourse would inject uncertainty into the grant process—particularly for multi‑year, phased awards—making them more expensive. For instance, ending clinical trials could leave patients without treatment and cause substantial scientific and financial losses for recipients and the government alike. This uncertainty might deter researchers and institutions from pursuing federal aid needed for long‑term, lifesaving studies.
The proposal also adds a hurdle: a senior appointee must perform a pre‑issuance review to judge whether an award demonstrably advances the president’s policy priorities, even after a merit‑based review has already taken place.
Collins argued that inserting this extra review step after peer‑reviewed merit evaluation undermines the government’s aim to fund scientific and biomedical research on merit and value, not political ideology.
She also noted that the draft rule does not explain how OMB and agencies would prevent the president’s policy priorities from overriding congressional intent in administering these awards.
Despite these being described as the most significant changes to the rule since its adoption, OMB allotted stakeholders only 45 days to comment, aiming to finalize the rule by October 1. Collins urged the agency to extend the comment period to at least 90 days and to withdraw any provisions that would unduly burden scientific and biomedical research and small communities.
In a separate July 1 letter to Vought, Senate Democrats labeled the draft guidance a power grab and unlawful.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY) and Sen. Patty Murray (D‑WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined fellow caucus members in urging Vought to immediately rescind the OMB draft proposal.
“This proposal dramatically expands agency authority, allowing the president to terminate or suspend any grant at any time, for any reason, without notice,” they wrote.
“Rather than providing regulatory clarity, the rule would tie funding to vague concepts like “anti‑American values,” leaving recipients unsure how to comply and forcing them into an endless guessing game about whether their activities might violate OMB’s ambiguous rules or the president’s whims,” they added.
“The OMB proposal unlawfully attempts to replace Congress’s role in directing federal spending with the president’s preferred priorities, making it harder for communities and organizations nationwide to fairly access federal funding,” they concluded.
The American Association for Cancer Research also condemned the rule in a press release, saying it would increase administrative complexity, create uncertainty for grant recipients, reduce transparency in funding decisions, and undermine the merit‑based processes that have effectively guided federal research investments.
“If this OMB‑proposed regulation is finalized, it will severely weaken the U.S. federal research grant program that has driven American innovation and medical breakthroughs for decades,” the association warned, urging its members to oppose the rule by submitting comments before the July 13 deadline.
A request for comment from OMB went unanswered as of press time.
