3/7/25: US cancels $400 million in grants, contracts to Columbia University over antisemitism allegations (Reuters) The U.S. government said the cancelled funds would come out of $5 billion in grants committed to Columbia, the GSA said in a joint statement with the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-cancels-400-million-grants-contracts-columbia-university-over-antisemitism-2025-03-07/
3/7/25: Dozens of conservative leaders back clean stopgap to avert shutdown (The Hill) Dozens of major conservative activist leaders and organizers are urging Republicans in Congress to support a clean continuing resolution (CR) to avert a government shutdown in a memo organized by the Conservative Action Project…. But Democrats have expressed opposition to a clean CR that lasts the entirety of the fiscal year, complicating the path in the Senate, where Democratic support is needed to meet the 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5182256-conservative-leaders-clean-cr-government-shutdown/ S ee also: Trump and Johnson Push a Stopgap Spending Bill to Avert a Shutdown (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-johnson-republicans-spending-bill.html
3/7/25: AI tools are spotting errors in research papers: inside a growing movement (Nature) Late last year, media outlets worldwide warned that black plastic cooking utensils contained worrying levels of cancer-linked flame retardants. The risk was found to be overhyped – a mathematical error in the underlying research suggested a key chemical exceeded the safe limit when in fact it was ten times lower than the limit. Keen-eyed researchers quickly showed that an artificial intelligence (AI) model could have spotted the error in seconds. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00648-5
3/7/25: NIH funding cuts will hit red states, rural areas and underserved communities the hardest (The Conversation) https://theconversation.com/nih-funding-cuts-will-hit-red-states-rural-areas-and-underserved-communities-the-hardest-250592
3/6/25: NIH Nominee Skirts Questions on Plan to Cut Indirect Cost Rates (Inside Higher Ed) At a key hearing Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he’s committed to providing NIH-funded scientists the resources they need. But he offered few specifics on how he’ll do that amid Trump’s plans to slash the $47 billion agency’s budget. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/03/06/nih-nominee-wont-commit-ending-indirect-costs
3/6/25: Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze, Saying White House Put Itself ‘Above Congress’ (New York Times) The ruling, which builds on the judge’s temporary order instructing the government to keep disbursing the funds, sets up a broader clash between Democratic states over the Trump administration’s efforts to align spending with the president’s agenda. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-funding-freeze-states.html
3/6/25: Stand Up for Science: US Researchers Mobilize in National Protests (The Scientist) On March 7, researchers will rally in Washington, D.C. and other US cities to protest federal policies threatening the future of science. https://www.the-scientist.com/stand-up-for-science-us-researchers-mobilize-in-national-protests-72773
3/6/25: GOP lawmakers balk at Trump’s call to repeal CHIPS Act (The Hill) Republican senators said they’re willing to work with Trump to make some changes to the program, but they argued the money allocated to bolster microchip production in the United States is critical to national security. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5178662-trump-chips-act-repeal-gop-senators/
3/6/25: Draft Order Offers Hints to How Trump Wants to Shut Down the Department (Inside Higher Ed) The 416-word draft order gives little detail as to what the “steps” of dismantling the department are or what would happen to certain congressionally mandated programs such as the Pell Grant, the student loan system or the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. However, the document does say that any funds allocated by the department should comply with federal law, including Trump’s previous orders on diversity, equity and inclusion and transgender athletes—both of which have been caught up in court. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/03/06/draft-order-outlines-plan-close-education-dept
3/6/25: Jobs lost in every state and lifesaving cures not discovered: Possible impacts of research cuts (AP) Ripple effects of the Trump administration’s crackdown on U.S. biomedical research promise to reach every corner of America. It’s not just about scientists losing their jobs or damaging the local economy their work indirectly supports — scientists around the country say it’s about patient health. https://apnews.com/article/trump-science-medicine-research-cancer-funding-university-0ef3fa47694784e47b0ecd51680410ba
3/6/25: Scoop: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear “pro-Hamas” (Axios) Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching an AI-fueled “Catch and Revoke” effort to cancel the visas of foreign nationals who appear to support Hamas or other designated terror groups, senior State Department officials tell Axios. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/state-department-ai-revoke-foreign-student-visas-hamas?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&stream=top
3/6/25: New NIH grant terminations target transgender studies—even in mice (Science) Researchers across the United States and beyond who study transgender health are learning that their National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants are being abruptly canceled. Two such killed grants were revealed on Monday and Science has now identified another 14 focused on transgender human health that, on 28 February, were terminated by way of a letter from NIH saying each project “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” https://www.science.org/content/article/new-nih-grant-terminations-target-transgender-studies-even-mice See also: Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants (Nature) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00703-1
3/6/25: Science and Technology:GAO’s Support for Congress (GAO-25-107724) Congress has a substantial interest in science and technology, which powers the U.S. economy and touches every part of the federal government. … Congress needs reliable and timely information to understand and respond to the implications of such emerging technologies for society and for the federal government’s finances. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107724
3/5/25: Federal judge blocks drastic funding cuts to medical research (AP) A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs. https://apnews.com/article/trump-nih-medical-research-funding-cut-indirect-costs-e7629d0d45d141b2ac47c54550411aff
3/5/25: State Department further scrutinizes foreign aid for DEI, climate and transgender projects (Politico) The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor launched a review of its foreign assistance projects Wednesday to determine if they fund climate, transgender or diversity, equity and inclusion-related initiatives, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO. The results of that screening via a questionnaire to organizations that receive State funding may determine the fate of the remainder of aid projects that President Donald Trump froze for 90 days with an executive order in January . https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/05/state-department-scrutinizes-foreign-aid-00213143
See also: What Peter Marocco told lawmakers about USAID at a closed-door meeting (DEVEX) The Office of Management and Budget has also issued a data call to all federal agencies that work on foreign assistance, with responses due by March 15 or 16, Marocco said. https://www.devex.com/news/what-peter-marocco-told-lawmakers-about-usaid-at-a-closed-door-meeting-109584?oauth_response=success&skip_optional_steps=true
3/4/25: Sticker shock: New U.S. tariffs could raise cost of research equipment and supplies (Science) The tariffs imposed today by the United States on its three largest trading partners could not only drive up the cost of goods for U.S. consumers, but also hit researchers by raising prices for scientific equipment. https://www.science.org/content/article/sticker-shock-new-u-s-tariffs-could-raise-cost-research-equipment-and-supplies
