On April 4, a federal district court judge issued a final judgment and permanent injunction blocking the Trump administration from cutting National Institutes of Health payments for research indirect costs. This action is related to litigation of three lawsuits, including the one detailed below. The government subsequently filed an appeal on April 8, 2025.
This follows the temporary restraining order issued on February 10, where the federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from reducing health research grants based on a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In this lawsuit, the attorneys general of 22 states argued that NIH’s abrupt decision to set a 15% cap on payments for facilities and administrative costs (F&A) linked to research would cause major harm to institution budgets, jeopardizing critical operations and medical research. As the State of California is a party to this lawsuit, California state entities including the UC system are temporarily protected from this reduction.