Trump Administration Reportedly Planning Health Funding Board with Power to Veto ‘Woke’ Research Initiatives

An upcoming executive order from the Trump administration is expected to establish a new board tasked with approving National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding, representing a latest effort to censor research topics that do not align with the president’s agenda.

The proposed order, reported by The Washington Post and Politico, was discussed during a Friday meeting where senior officials accused the NIH of funding initiatives deemed “woke” that conflicted with the administration’s priorities.

Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), alongside other officials, proposed creating an external committee that would hold the power to veto biomedical research grants deemed misaligned with Trump’s objectives, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

This move toward an external commission based on ideological alignment breaks from the NIH’s traditional merit-based review process. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has pushed back against research cuts, defending the agency’s grant procedures, while Vought has advocated for a comprehensive reshaping of federal spending.

The proposed board comes amid ongoing litigation, with researchers filing a class-action lawsuit against the NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. The lawsuit alleges that the administration is violating the First Amendment by withholding and terminating grants to suppress opposing viewpoints.

“What the First Amendment does not allow is the government’s use of its funding power to target or silence the expression of disfavored viewpoints within the biomedical research community,” the lawsuit states.

Since the start of Trump’s second term, billions of dollars in federal grants covering health, nutrition, the environment, and disaster relief have been frozen or cut. The administration has specifically targeted research containing keywords such as “equity,” “racist,” “gender,” and “climate change” for funding restrictions.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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