Jan. 25 (UPI) — A government-wide hiring freeze and halt to funding of travel, meetings and communications have officials at the National Institutes of Health concerned about potentially negative impacts.
The hiring freeze, imposed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, affects all federal government agencies, but the restrictions on travel, meetings and communications are specific to the Department of Health and Human Services and the NIH.
The NIH has about 20,000 researchers and staff on its payroll who work at 27 centers and institutions across the country, but Trump temporarily has frozen funding that many need to travel, meetings and communications for what are called “study sections.”
The sudden freeze on federal funding has NIH officials and researchers worried about the effects on medical and biotechnology research. Many also are concerned they won’t have funding to pay lab workers and continue experiments.
The federal government annually provides researchers with more than $31 billion for scientific research to help cure human diseases and make other medical advancements.
The sudden halt in funding makes it difficult for researchers to continue undertaking scientific studies, and the HHS on Friday announced a one-week communications ban through Feb. 1.
The communications ban includes publishing regulations, grant announcements, social media posts, guidance documents, press releases and other forms of communications through next week.
The ban also cancels planned speaking engagements through Feb. 1.
The one-week pause in communications is intended to enable a new team at HHS and the NIH to establish a new process for reviewing and prioritizing federally funded studies.
The pause temporarily halts reviews and approvals of grant-funding requests at the 24 grant-making entities controlled by the NIH.
The Trump administration is not the first to temporarily halt communications and funding during transitional periods.
President Barack Obama limited attendance at meetings scheduled to discuss scientific matters.
Obama’s imposed limits continued those placed by President George W. Bush.
A travel ban, though, is unusual and applies to all but return trips to initial points of departure for affected personnel.
