NIH to Reconsider Frozen DEI, Gender Identity Grants worth Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

A portion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) grants frozen or denied by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last year will be reviewed and possibly reinstated by the Trump administration to appease the left. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the rejected grants also fund research related to LGBTQ+ and transgender issues as well as gender identity, areas of study that do not meet the administration’s priorities. That is why last spring the NIH, which invests most of its $48 billion budget in medical research, nixed grants flagged for DEI, transgender, LGBTQ+ and other leftist projects that received large sums of taxpayer dollars under Biden. Some were buried among the 50,000 grants the NIH awards annually to more than 300,000 researchers at over 2,500 universities and medical schools nationwide, but the Trump administration plucked them out and revoked them. Thousands of grants worth billions of dollars were targeted over DEI, gender identity and LGBTQ+ research.

Predictably, legal action ensued and several lawsuits were filed by researchers, unions, civil rights groups and a coalition of Democratic states that saw $783 million in frozen DEI grants. That federal lawsuit, filed by attorneys general in Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin alleges the Trump administration violated the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by unreasonably delaying the review and disposition of applications for NIH grants submitted by researchers. Another lawsuit, filed by a leftwing civil right group, says a plaintiff whose research focuses on sexual violence in minority communities had six grants terminated and another that studied the promotion of mental and physical health among black men. An Ivy League professor lost her NIH grant focusing on obstetrical outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer women, while another frozen award funded research on the mental health impacts of laws targeting the LGBTQ+ population.

In the case filed by the states, a trail court and an appeals court in Massachusetts sided with the attorneys general, but the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that the trial judge lacked the authority to compel the grants to be paid. The states asked the Supreme Court to leave the lower court’s order in place, claiming that the termination of the DEI grants “caused unrecoverable loss of scientific knowledge” and would inflict incalculable losses in public health and human life. The high court did not agree with its 5-4 decision setting aside the lower court rulings and allowing the Trump administration to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in NIH grants involving DEI. The ruling certainly makes it tougher for grant recipients who challenge the Trump administration’s changes to federal funding based on its new DEI and gender identity policies. The Supreme Court decision undoubtedly gives the government the upper hand to withhold taxpayer dollars for research that involves wasteful projects prioritized by the previous administration.

That makes the Trump administration’s decision to review and possibly reinstate the canceled DEI grants puzzling. In a settlement agreement recently signed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the attorneys general who sued the administration, the NIH agrees to consider hundreds of grants worth $783 million without taking into account DEI. The document was filed in Massachusetts federal court on Dec. 29 and the state’s attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell, calls it a victory against unlawful directives that targeted NIH projects based on their perceived connection to DEI, transgender issues, vaccine hesitancy and other topics disfavored by the Trump administration. Under the agreement NIH officials “will complete their consideration of the Applications in the ordinary course of NIH’s scientific review process, without applying the Challenged Directives.” This clearly refers to the Trump administration’s ban on funding controversial DEI, transgender and gender identity research. The NIH also commits to “evaluate each application individually and in good faith.”

The post NIH to Reconsider Frozen DEI, Gender Identity Grants worth Hundreds of Millions of Dollars appeared first on Judicial Watch.