STAT+: Federal judge issues permanent injunction on Trump cuts to research overhead payments

A federal judge on Friday ordered a permanent injunction blocking a Trump administration policy that would slash billions in research overhead payments to universities, academic medical centers, and other grant-receiving institutions. 

Paradoxically, the Trump administration had requested that very verdict earlier in the day, as it needs a final ruling in order to file an appeal.  

In her order, Judge Angel Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote that the administration’s attempt to cap payments for indirect costs, facility and administrative expenses associated with research, violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that governs how agencies implement new regulations. She wrote that the new policy, which applied to new and existing grants and was announced just three days before it was to take effect, was “arbitrary and capricious,” that it “failed to follow notice-and-comment procedures,” and that it was “impermissibly retroactive.”

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