Science policy this week: June 23, 2025

What’s Ahead

NIH James Shannon Building.png — Building 1 on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Alisa Machalek

Judge orders restoration of NIH grants, NSF sued again

A federal judge ruled last week that the National Institutes of Health’s termination of hundreds of grants earlier this year was illegal and ordered the agency to resume funding for the plaintiffs. The ruling applies to parties involved in the lawsuits, including individual researchers named in the suit, members of the American Public Health Association, the United Auto Workers union, and researchers at public institutions in the 16 states that sued NIH. The plaintiffs’ lists of grants are included in court orders released today.

Judge William Young in Massachusetts found the terminations to be arbitrary and capricious, adding, “This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. I would be blind not to call it out.” In response, a White House spokesperson told Fox News, “Justice ceases to be administered when a judge clearly rules on the basis of his political ideologies,” while a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the department “is exploring all legal options, including filing an appeal and moving to stay the order.”

The National Science Foundation is also facing lawsuits for its grant terminations, including one filed in late May by 16 states and another filed last week by several groups representing teachers, researchers, and educators. (The American Association of Physics Teachers, one of the plaintiffs, is an AIP Member Society.) Meanwhile, NSF’s implementation of a 15% cap on indirect costs was blocked in court last Friday.

Senate Republicans back higher taxes on universities, lower on business R&D

The Senate Finance Committee’s section of the Republican reconciliation bill, released last week, seeks to significantly increase excise taxes on university endowments, though by far less than the House bill. The draft legislation would keep the current 1.4% tax on schools with endowments worth less than $750,000 per enrolled student but would raise that rate to 4% for schools with $750,000 to $2 million per student and 8% for schools with more than $2 million per student. The House has proposed tax rates as high as 21% for the wealthiest schools. Both proposals would exempt religious institutions, colleges with fewer than 500 students, and certain state colleges.

Separately, the legislation would end the requirement that domestic research tax deductions be amortized over several years and instead allow those costs to be deducted in the same year in which they occurred. Foreign-based research would still be subject to the amortization requirement. A similar provision is included in the House bill. The legislation would also increase the semiconductor manufacturing investment credit and roll back energy efficiency and renewable energy tax incentives. The effects of these changes on tax revenue over ten years have been estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation. For instance, it projects that the higher endowment taxes would result in around $3.8 billion in revenue, while the R&D expensing change would decrease revenue by $141 billion.

Republican leaders are aiming to pass much of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda through the reconciliation process, which enables them to bypass the Senate filibuster. Senate Republicans are aiming to pass the bill by July 4.

House to examine post-quantum cryptography following executive order

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on post-quantum cryptography. The witnesses are Scott Crowder, vice president of IBM Quantum Adoption; Marisol Cruz Cain, director of information technology and cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office; and Denis Mandich, chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm Qrypt. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that strikes requirements from a Biden-era order that directed agencies to implement post-quantum cryptography “as soon as practicable” and to engage with foreign governments and industries to encourage their transition to PQC. Trump’s order retains a portion of the Biden policy that directs agencies to create a “list of product categories in which products that support post-quantum cryptography are widely available” and support implementation of a new internet security protocol.

Also on our radar

Today, the White House issued implementation guidance for President Trump’s order on “gold standard science.”
The House Committee on the CCP will hold a hearing on Wednesday to explore how the U.S. can surpass authoritarian countries in AI technology. The committee’s leadership recently introduced a bill that aims to increase the security and federal oversight of U.S.-developed AI systems.
OMB Director Russell Vought will testify before Senate appropriators on Wednesday on the president’s proposed rescissions of funds from 22 programs.
On Thursday, the House Science Committee will examine the Justice40 Initiative, a Biden-era effort to direct benefits from federal climate and clean energy spending toward disadvantaged communities. President Trump canceled Justice40’s underlying executive order early in his term.