The National Institutes of Health awarded a consulting firm a $7 million contract earlier this month to retain “subject matter experts” who would help the NIH conform to President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s vision of a new American public health system.
The contract was awarded to Credence Management Solutions without competition through an already-existing General Services Administration contract. It comes as Trump and Kennedy radically reshape the Department of Health and Human Services and how it uses contracts, with orders to slash current spending levels by 35%.
Credence is a Virginia-based government contractor that has worked extensively with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense, but rarely with HHS and never before with the NIH. It’s unclear exactly which NIH initiatives Credence’s subject matter experts will support. But the contract’s language suggests a key role in furthering the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.