California, other states sue Trump administration over key federal research funds

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – California and 21 other states are suing the Trump administration over efforts to slash key funding universities use to conduct medical research.

Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health issued a memo indicating that it would reduce “indirect cost rates to an across-the-board 15% rate.” According to the department, the average indirect cost rate has been between 27% and 28%.

Indirect funding from the NIH covers research supplies, building maintenance, utilities, support staff and other costs.

According to the lawsuit, the University of California received over $2 billion for research in 2023-24, and California State University received $158 million in the most recent audited year.

The lawsuit alleges that reducing funding would result in “layoffs, suspension of clinical trials, disruption of ongoing research programs, and laboratory closures.” It also alleges that the reduction violates federal law and undermines how Congress said the institutes’ money can be used.

“Cuts of this magnitude would deal a devastating blow to our country’s research and innovation enterprise, undermine our global competitiveness, and, if allowed to go forward, will ultimately delay or derail progress toward treatment and cures for many of the most serious diseases that plague us today,” UC President Michael Drake, in a statement.

“We stand ready to fight to protect this critical investment in a healthier and more prosperous America.”

The National Institutes of Health said it’d implement the rate cut on Monday. To justify the decision, the agency said in a memo, “Most private foundations that fund research provide substantially lower indirect costs than the federal government, and universities readily accept grants from these foundations.”

The suit is the latest effort to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to halt or limit federal funding.