9/19/25: House approves stopgap spending bill but health care fight threatens a shutdown (NPR) The House has voted 217 to 212 to approve a short-term spending bill to fund the government though Nov. 21. All but one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted against the measure. The bill now heads to the Senate where top Democrats insist they will block the bill as part of their push to use the bill to address expiring health care subsidies. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5545929/house-stopgap-funding-bill-government-shutdown
9/18/25: UC Researchers Likely to Win New Court Order to Get Grant Funds (Bloomberg Law) Researchers at the University of California school system are likely to win a new court injunction barring the Departments of Defense and Transportation and the National Institutes of Health from terminating multi-year research grants, a San Francisco federal judge said at a hearing Thursday. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/uc-researchers-likely-to-win-new-court-order-to-get-grant-funds
9/18/25: USDA funding delays under Trump compromise agricultural research (Science) It’s not unusual for new administrations to review funding programs. But after President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration went further. It ordered USDA to freeze funding of all awarded grants, a stoppage that lasted for much of the first half of the year. The aim was to identify grants that included work related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which were canceled wholesale. The agency also canceled grants to universities for research related to climate-smart agriculture. And it stopped awarding new grants. https://www.science.org/content/article/usda-funding-delays-under-trump-compromise-agricultural-research
9/17/25: NIH promises to create conflict-of-interest database for scientists, but offers few details (Science) In a move apparently aimed at increasing transparency in federally funded research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will establish a database tracking health industry payments to scientists that could represent conflicts of interest. The new system, briefly mentioned in a report released last week by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission , would mirror the U.S. Open Payments program, which tracks similar payments to health care providers such as physicians and nurses. https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-promises-create-conflict-interest-database-scientists-offers-few-details
See also: NIH outlines new system for awarding research grants to foreign scientists (STAT) https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/18/nih-research-grants-foreign-scientists/
9/17/25: Delays, uncertainty plague NSF fellowship for graduate students (Science) One of the premier U.S. graduate fellowships is mired in uncertainty as would-be applicants await overdue details about how to apply for the upcoming year’s awards. The National Science Foundation (NSF) usually releases the application guidelines for its flagship Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) in mid-July, giving applicants at least 90 days to prepare materials before an October deadline. But for weeks NSF’s website has read “solicitation coming soon,” leaving many frustrated and confused. https://www.science.org/content/article/delays-uncertainty-plague-nsf-fellowship-graduate-students
