A week after the National Institutes of Health issued sharp cuts on research infrastructure funding, House Democrats are calling on NIH’s acting director, Matthew Memoli, to reverse course.
In a letter led by Reps. Gabe Amo, Diana DeGette, Linda Sánchez, Lizzie Fletcher and Chrissy Houlahan, and signed by more than 150 other members — and exclusively obtained by NOTUS — Democrats lay out the party’s concerns about the abrupt shift in NIH’s organizational directives, citing potentially negative economic and academic effects from the cuts.
“The supplemental guidance for this misguided and detrimental announcement states that the ‘United States should have the best medical research in the world.’ Cutting vital funding for indirect costs accomplishes the exact opposite,” the letter says. “Instead of supporting efforts to cure disease, this policy will severely compromise the United States’ ability to conduct lifesaving research.”
Democrats also request Memoli provide answers on how the NIH assessed the potential impact of the cuts and if the government health organization will address concerns about layoffs, halted studies, alternative solutions for cost savings and the reduction’s ultimate impact on biomedical research in the United States.
The letter also references an appropriations rider that would prohibit NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services from unilaterally changing how the health agencies fund indirect costs. The provision has been attached to every appropriations bill since 2018, after Trump attempted to cut NIH spending in his first administration.
“Really want to make sure, in all of these attempts to find government efficiency, that we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot on something that makes America strong but also helps us solve problems,” Amo told NOTUS. “The nature of the work at NIH is such that it should be unlocking innovation, not stifling it.”
The NIH did not respond to a request for comment.
Rhode Island was among the 22 states to receive a reprieve from the cut when a federal judge on Monday temporarily halted the cut.
Amo’s district is home to Brown University, one of Rhode Island’s preeminent research institutions. On Monday, Brown joined over a dozen schools and academic groups in a lawsuit against the NIH that would return the indirect funding percentage to its previous rate.
NIH awarded Brown over $139 million in 2024. Amo said the school is alarmed about how a decrease in funding could affect its plan to grow its research presence in Rhode Island.
“Brown, when they look at this, it stifles growth,” Amo said. “And they’re in a growth mode to expand their footprint, especially in brain sciences.”
Brown announced in 2024 a new agreement with Lifespan, a company operating over 1,620 hospitals and patient care offices in Rhode Island. Brown planned to invest $150 million over seven years into Lifespan, which has been rebranded as Brown University Health.
The new NIH guidance, issued last Friday, would see grant-seeking institutions request no more than 15% of funding for “indirect” costs, including operational overhead, lab maintenance and equipment purchases. While rates for indirect funds are negotiated by each institution and can reach as high as 70%, the current average is roughly 28%.
“If we do not commit to sustaining that work and committing to the infrastructure, ultimately, that could have a deleterious impact on future innovation and advancing care and health for patients, not only here in the state of Rhode Island, but more regionally, nationally and globally,” Dr. Mark Turco, the president and CEO of Rhode Island Life Science Hub, told NOTUS.
Although no Republicans signed the letter, the NIH cuts haven’t just been a partisan concern. After the reductions were announced, multiple Republican lawmakers expressed consternation over how the rate changes would affect their home states. Maine Sen. Susan Collins called the NIH cuts “poorly conceived.”
But it’s not just Trump critics calling out the new directives.
On Monday, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt told reporters she would speak with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about improving the NIH’s efficiency while maintaining research excellence, two days after she spoke to an Alabama publication about the new directive. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is the state’s largest employer and has received over $1 billion dollars in NIH grants in recent years.
North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd seemed similarly aware that funding to their state could be on the chopping block. North Carolina’s Research Triangle is the largest research park in the country, with over $2 billion in NIH funding going to the state.
Budd, another Trump loyalist, said his office had shared his concerns with the administration of its concerns with the new cap, while Tillis told NOTUS that at least some of the new restrictions should be rescinded.
“Obviously we’ve got to get a lot of these back online,” Tillis told NOTUS earlier this week. “If you look at how they monitor these programs, I hope we’re gonna see some tailoring there like we’ve seen on some of these other policies.”
Although lawmakers of every ilk have expressed discomfort — if not outright hostility — with the cuts, formal Democratic opposition faced a familiar challenge: staying focused.
Since the NIH announced its new directive, Trump has appointed himself chair of the Kennedy Center, issued new tariffs, expanded his plans for a U.S. takeover of Gaza, flirted with a 50% reduction to the Pentagon and discontinued production of the penny.
“There’s volume, for sure, and that’s by design, because they want to distract us from the range of things that they’re doing,” Amo said. “We may not respond the same way to every challenge that they present, but there are lots of avenues for response.”
“We are short three. So three Republicans,” Amo added. “There are Republicans in the chamber who are affected by this change and who, I would surmise, it is in their best interest to speak up. Because they’re going to be hearing it at home next week when we’re on our district work period.”
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated one of the co-leaders of Democrats’ letter. It was co-led by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette.