Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell has initiated legal action along with attorneys general from nearly two dozen states to halt the Trump administration’s funding cuts for medical and public health research at universities across the country. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, challenges the administration’s efforts to reduce indirect costs to research institutions, such as lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced that it was cutting payments toward overhead costs for research institutions receiving its grants, a move that could create major budget shortfalls for universities. In Massachusetts alone, 219 organizations received approximately $3.46 billion in NIH funding for over 5,700 research projects in 2024.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel are co-leading the legal action with Campbell, with attorneys general from various other states joining in. The lawsuit argues that the reduction in funding could have severe consequences, including job losses and the disruption of ongoing health research initiatives.
This litigation is part of a series of legal challenges that Campbell has pursued against the Trump administration, focusing on issues ranging from birthright citizenship to federal funding freezes. U.S. Senator Ed Markey has also criticized the funding cuts, calling them a direct assault on researchers and expecting a court decision to freeze the administration’s decision. The states involved in the lawsuit are seeking a court ruling declaring the rate change unlawful.
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