The Trump administration wants to gut a core research unit of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Democrats in Congress say the real reason is to help the Pentagon pay its bills, as MedPage Today’s Joyce Frieden reports.
A two-page notice quietly posted to the Federal Register on Aug. 28 proposes what the National Institutes of Health calls a reorganization of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: abolishing several offices along with the Division of Clinical Research (DCR), which oversees NIAID’s intramural clinical trials, regulatory compliance, and research methodology. The agency, in a notice signed by Acting Director John Powers III, MD, said the reorganization “aims to better align with presidential priorities and to reflect the institute’s updated vision and revised mission focus while continuing important research.” Public comment was open for just five days, Sept. 14-18.
The timing raised alarms on Capitol Hill. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) revealed that the Department of Defense has struck an interagency agreement — never proactively disclosed to Congress — to tap NIAID funding for its own budget. “The Trump administration is now trying to rob NIH of billions of dollars that Congress provided for medical research so that it can pad the Pentagon’s budget,” Murray said, calling the arrangement “outrageous” and demanding it be terminated immediately. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the money had been appropriated for research “intended to help Americans who are exposed to HIV, influenza, tuberculosis, and other deadly diseases.”
The Infectious Diseases Society of America and HIV Medicine Association jointly objected to the rushed process. HIVMA Chair Anna Person, MD, told MedPage Today the groups’ “concerns are focused on the process being used to rapidly advance a reorganization that involves abolishing the division and centers within NIAID,” warning that NIH should instead be prioritizing the “stabilization” of research infrastructure after a year and a half of upheaval. NIAID did not respond to requests for comment.
