- A group of 22 Democratic AGs obtained a temporary restraining order blocking Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates (Rate Change Notice), which would reduce to 15 percent all indirect cost rates for NIH grants; indirect cost rates cover research institutions’ operational, administrative, and overhead expenses.
- In the complaint, the AGs allege that the Rate Change Notice is arbitrary and capricious, contravenes Congress’s express directives in the appropriation acts governing the NIH, and is contrary to HHS’s regulations prohibiting NIH from requiring categorial and indiscriminate changes to indirect cost rates, among other allegations.
- The TRO enjoined NIH and HHS from enforcing the Rate Change Notice and required them to confirm regular disbursements of federal financial assistance funds, and ordered the parties to submit additional briefing.