Washington AG Nick Brown: Feds agree to resume review for NIH grants

Elise Takahama, The Seattle Times on Dec 31, 2025

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The federal government has agreed to resume the review process for National Institutes of Health-funded medical and scientific research grants — including those to Washington state universities and institutes — which the Trump administration attempted to freeze earlier this year.

The agreement involves grants whose evaluations were paused in February. At the same time the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs NIH, slashed hundreds of other awards that seemed to be related to “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The decision is the latest development in the ongoing legal seesaw that has unfolded since a group of 16 state attorneys general, including Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, sued the federal agency over the grant terminations.

A federal judge in June ruled the cuts were likely illegal, but that decision addressed just a portion of the research projects in jeopardy. This week’s agreement offers some hope for other grants that had not yet been fully reviewed by NIH.

“This agreement reaffirms that the federal government can’t stop legitimate research simply because it may have included words or phrases that scare the President and his political allies,” Brown said in a Wednesday statement. “Thanks to our suit, funds will once again begin to flow to Washington’s centers of research.”

According to the agreement, filed Monday in the federal District Court of Massachusetts, NIH is now required to make decisions on applications for continuing existing grants. Many of these grants had already received approval from relevant review panels, but the Trump administration stopped short of issuing final decisions, Brown’s office said in the statement.

NIH grant applications typically undergo rigorous review by experts and agency officials who assess each proposal’s scientific merit in light of funding availability and agency priorities, according to Brown’s office.

As a result of NIH’s cuts and delays, states have alleged their research institutions experienced “significant harm,” including in Washington, Brown’s office said.

The University of Washington, for example, received more than 1,220 NIH grants, totaling over $648 million, in fiscal year 2024. As a result of the funding disruptions, UW furloughed research staff and faculty this year and cut admissions to graduate programs, including those related to cancer research and Alzheimer’s research, according to the attorney general’s office.

A spokesperson for UW did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

STAT News reported this week’s deal on NIH grant reviews has already meant at least 135 applications have received funding, meaning these projects can resume, even as the lawsuit over grant cuts continues to move through the courts.

Although a federal judge found the terminations unlawful, NIH appealed the decision over the summer. In August, the Supreme Court decided that while the NIH cuts were likely illegal, the federal court did not have jurisdiction to order the government to reinstate funds that had already been rescinded, STAT reported. As a result, the Trump administration could move forward with blocking $783 million worth of funding.

A hearing on the NIH's appeal is scheduled for Tuesday.