AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement in response to a U.S. District Court ruling, which maintained an injunction against harmful cuts to research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A Feb. 10 lawsuit led by the AAMC, with other organizations, challenged the legality of the cuts:
“The AAMC is heartened that a federal court agreed that critical research funding must continue while the case proceeds. These unlawful cuts would slow medical progress and cost lives, and we will continue our fight to stop the implementation of this harmful action. The AAMC maintains its strong support for robust NIH funding to advance cutting-edge research that benefits every person and community in America.”
Background
Today Judge Angel Kelley in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered a nationwide preliminary injunction to ensure that the administration’s planned destructive cuts to federal research funding cannot be implemented while the litigation proceeds. The AAMC, with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, and Greater New York Hospital Association, along with other plaintiffs in separately-filed actions, argued that a Feb. 7, 2025, notice issued as "supplemental guidance" to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement was unlawful and would result in irreparable harm. The notice, published on a Friday evening to take effect Monday, would have ignored institutions’ previously negotiated reimbursement rates for facilities and administrative (“F&A” or “indirect”) costs and instead implemented a standard rate of 15% across all NIH grants and all institutions. This action would have resulted in at least a $6.5 billion dollar loss of previously committed funding to support critical research activities. The impact of these cuts would have an adverse impact on every state and community and delay medical progress.
The court’s action follows a nationwide temporary restraining order issued Feb. 10, the day the notice was intended to go into effect, in response to the lawsuit filed by the AAMC, and extended on Feb. 21. Separate lawsuits were filed by State Attorneys General, representing 22 states, and by a group of organizations led by the Association of American Universities.
View the AAMC’s Feb. 11 statement on the lawsuit challenging the legality of the administration’s stated plan to impose major cuts to federally funded research.