NIH grants may face White House veto panel, US media say

US President Donald Trump's White House has discussed creating an outside commission that could veto grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health, US media including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources.

The NIH is the US agency responsible for medical research. The reported discussions come after Trump, since returning to office in early 2025, cut federal research funding, including for biomedical work.

The Washington Post reported that White House budget director Russell Vought criticised the NIH for funding what he called “woke” research.

Russ Paulsen, president of the non-profit alliance Research!America, criticised the reported proposal on Sunday. He said adding more bureaucracy would delay medical progress for patients and families waiting for treatments or medical breakthroughs.

The dispute is part of a broader fight over US research and education policy. Last week, American researchers sued the NIH, accusing it of blocking grants to censor views it disagrees with on issues including diversity, gender identity and climate change. One of them, University of Pittsburgh psychiatry professor Ann Cohen, said funding for her Alzheimer’s disease research had been cut.