The Office of Management and Budget has proposed new federal rules that would let any government agency cancel any research grant at any time by claiming the work is not in the national interest. The proposal would also make political appointees the final decision-makers on which grants get funded, reducing the role of peer reviewers who currently evaluate the scientific quality and feasibility of grant applications.
According to a report by Ars Technica, the move comes after the Trump administration issued an executive order last August intended to change how grant funding works across the federal government. That order was challenged in court multiple times. Courts ruled that executive orders cannot bypass legal requirements and can be thrown out without strong justification. To avoid that outcome, the OMB folded the original executive order into other administration priorities and sent the combined package through the formal federal rulemaking process.
Under the existing system, peer reviewers rate the scientific quality and feasibility of grant applications. Subject-matter experts inside funding agencies then use those ratings to decide which grants receive money. Under the proposed rules, political appointees would have the final say. They would be specifically instructed not to routinely defer to peer reviewers.
The proposed rules go further than the original executive order. In addition to downgrading peer review, the document would ban grants on a number of topics tied to ongoing culture war debates. It would limit international scientific collaborations. It would also block grant money from being used for things like publishing research papers or attending scientific conferences.
Previously, grant-making rules were handled agency by agency. The Department of Energy, for example, was not expected to follow the same procedures developed for the National Institutes of Health. The OMB issued overall guidance, but each agency had latitude to set its own process. The new document is meant to end that arrangement, turning what had been guidance into binding rules that apply across the entire federal government.
By publishing the proposed rules, the OMB has started the formal federal rulemaking process. That process requires a public comment period before any final rule can be published in the Federal Register. The administration's decision to use the formal rulemaking process is a direct response to the court losses it suffered when trying to make the same changes through executive orders alone.
The scope of the proposal is broad. Any federal agency would be able to cancel any grant at any time based on a vague assertion that the work does not serve the national interest. No specific standard is defined for what qualifies as being against the national interest, which critics note gives political appointees wide latitude to terminate research for reasons unrelated to scientific merit.
The public comment period is now open, giving researchers, universities, scientific organizations, and members of the public a window to formally respond before the rules are finalized.
