Proposed new US funding rules: We can cancel any grant at any time

The document itself is an odd grab-bag of micromanaging grant processes, assertion of presidential power, and airing of cultural grievances. In many spots, it’s not even internally consistent—it insists, for example, that “Federal financial assistance must not discriminate on the basis of the viewpoint,” and then turns around and complains that grants ” were often used… to promote a ‘woke’ policy agenda that did not reflect the values of the vast majority of the American public.” Its lack of coherence, however, will not prevent it from causing staggering damage to the US scientific system. For starters, it would formalize the deprecation of peer review as a factor in deciding which grants to fund. “Peer review remains advisory and does not replace agency discretion,” the document states. That was always technically true, as agencies like the NIH and National Science Foundation reserved the option of funding some lower-scoring grants if experts within those agencies felt they had merit that the reviewers had overlooked. But those were considered exceptions and were relatively rare. Nearly everything about that will be changing if the OMB has its way. The people making those sorts of decisions will no longer be expert staff, but political appointees. Scientific merit is meant to matter less than vague standards like “in the national interest.” And the document states blatantly that any grant program would need to be “aligned with administration policies and priorities.” The administration has been on a losing streak in court cases involving its widespread cancellation of grants in 2025, in part because the agencies doing the terminating didn’t follow any formal procedure. The new rules would formally declare that agencies don’t need a reason. All grant approvals would include language warning the recipient that they could be canceled at any time if the agency providing the funding decides that the grant is no longer in the national interest. These would all be problematic on their own, but the OMB is just warming up. If you had foreign collaborators, you might be out of luck. The document suggests an outright ban on federal funding of collaborations involving Chinese researchers. But even our allies are apparently meant to be collaborated with as a last resort. “When designing research and development programs, and evaluating applications,” the OMB states, “Federal agencies must apply a domestic-first framework, under which international elements may be included only if the Federal agency determines that such elements are justified, consistent with program objectives, and in the national interest of the United States.” (There are some indications that agencies started applying this standard even before the OMB document was published.) Research journals generally require scientists to pay for the privilege of publishing there. But if the OMB gets its way, making these payments from a grant will be forbidden unless you get approval from the funding agency: “OMB is revising the section to make publication costs unallowable unless such costs are expressly required by statute or approved in advance by the Federal agency on a case-by-case basis.” The same approval will be needed to pay for travel to a conference. Amazingly, OMB is creating this massive administrative hassle in a document that claims it is “reducing recipient burden.” Its justification for that claim is that it’s eliminating any DEI requirements. If you wanted to cripple science research and were disappointed that Congress continued to fund it, this is the sort of document you would produce. It pulls US scientists out of the international community, leaves them unable to communicate their findings and meet with other scientists, and leaves grant applications subject to culture war litmus tests and the whims of non-expert bureaucrats. Those lucky enough to see a grant funded will live in constant fear that it could be canceled whenever the winds change in Washington, DC. Public comment on the proposed rule is now open.