After NIH move, DOGE hysteria spreads – Washington Examiner

As Raskin indicated, for Democrats the chief villain in the narrative was, of course, Elon Musk of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency, and also the Heritage Foundation s Project 2025. Musk had called the old, high indirect costs payments a ripoff. Last year, Project 2025 recommended that Congress should cap the indirect cost rate paid to universities so that it does not exceed the lowest rate a university accepts from a private organization to fund research efforts. This market-based reform would help reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.

Meanwhile, knowledgeable Republicans were appalled  not at the new policy but at the media/Democratic reaction. As a physician who has conducted NIH-funded research, I understand how important research funding is, said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a Johns Hopkins-trained anesthesiologist, in a statement. But for years, the American taxpayer has paid inflated 50-60 percent indirect costs for research in universities while nonprofits, private companies, and foundations only pay 15 percent or less. The NIH s new indirect cost rate of 15 percent is in line with what research institutions receive from private foundations, and could actually allow more NIH funding to go directly to critical scientific research, instead of funding bloated university bureaucracies, including DEI offices. The Washington Post article, Harris added, was grossly misleading.

All of that came within 24 hours of the announcement of the new policy. It s not yet clear whether the NIH matter will reach USAID-levels of intensity among Democrats and the media. But it s off to a strong start.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Byron York.