This article has been updated with additional reporting.
Leading members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation and scientists at Oregon Health & Science University said Friday a proposed Trump administration rule would gut critical medical research, hurt care and cost jobs.
The Feb. 7 proposed federal regulation would effectively slash National Institutes of Health funding for ongoing research by 26%, costing OHSU as much as $80 million. Meanwhile, the administration's other moves have halted funding for safety net clinics across the country and raised alarm over the future of Medicaid, the program that funds care for one in three Oregonians under the Oregon Health Plan.
The federal research cuts would “cripple our ability to do biomedical research at OHSU,” PeterBarr-Gillespie, the university’s chief research officer, said at a press conference Friday.
On Feb. 10, a federal judge in Boston temporarily paused the rule pending further arguments. But Gillespie said one way or another the university is anticipating what he called “significant cuts.”
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined Rep. Suzanne Bonamici in calling the proposal illegal since Congress already approved the funds. Merkley said the cuts have “life and death stakes.”
The opponents of the cuts noted that research advances at OHSU led to Gleevec, which made leukemia a manageable disease, as well as a new blood test to detect pancreatic cancer and promising research on a potential universal flu vaccine, among many others.
Marc Freeman, director of the Vollum Institute at OHSU, said his team has made promising strides in addressing brain conditions. But the cuts would cost his team access to needed tools and support, like if ana auto mechanic was only allowed to use half their tools while working on your car.
On the other hand, he said, “if we're successful, the impact could be enormous. It would potentially provide one of the first real treatments for Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury, stroke.”
Cuts would affect patients, jobs
Last year, OHSU received more than $277 million in NIH funding, accounting for more than 70% of the agency’s funding in Oregon.
A public entity overseen by a board of governor appointees, the teaching hospital and research hub employs more than 20,000 people, making it the largest employer in Portland and one of the largest in the state.
Gillespie said the “research is foundational to provide the complex health care in the region that OHSU provides, and also to train the next generation of clinicians and scientists.”
Along with a group of university research centers, a group of state attorney generals, including Oregon, sued to block the cuts. The suit claimed that OHSU would lose about $80 million in funding that would affect the university’s “ability to carry out ongoing clinical trials and could immediately and directly impact patient care.”
The New York Times reported that the idea was broached in a conservative policy document called Project 2025, spearheaded by a top Trump budget official, as a way to cut funding for “leftist" universities.
The federal rule would leave intact direct grant awards, but slash the indirect overhead rates that researchers rely on to fund equipment, services and other infrastructure. Under current rules, the university would receive as much as $56,000 in indirect billings for a $100,000 grant. But the new rule slashes the overhead rate from 56% to 15%.
“You can't do research without infrastructure, and these cuts, as we know, would mean billions of dollars less to develop cures, treatments for diseases,” Bonamici said.
Other cuts target direct care
Wyden noted that other moves by the Trump administation have interrupted funding for federally qualified health centers, the networks of safety clinics that try to fill gaps for low-income or rural communities — for instance, forcing Lapine Community Health Center to lay off 11% of its staff.
Another safety net clinic system, One Community Health, has had to curb improvements to behavioral health access and could see threats to its mobile medical teams, among other services and care, said Rose Hinkle, its chief financial officer. The nonprofit serves Hood River and Wasco counties in Oregon and Klickitat and Skamania counties in Washington
Wyden, Merkley and Bonamici also highlighted cuts being discussed to Medicaid, which provides free care to people with low-incomes, including 1.4 million Oregonians.
Merkley said the cuts would further damage access to care that already is severely limited.
“We don't have a surplus of doctors and nurses now. So anyone lost is a huge loss to the treatment provided in rural and urban America,” he said, adding that as these cuts and others are considered in Congress, people should speak out. “The American people have to know what's happening. They have to stand up and say it's unacceptable.”
Wyden said, “Elon Musk will realize soon enough that these diseases can affect Republicans as well.”
