Trump Draft Order Would Give Vought Veto Over NIH Grants

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought would gain authority to veto any individual grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health under a draft executive order the Trump administration is preparing, Ars Technica reported Sept. 21, citing an initial account from The Washington Post that was later confirmed and expanded by The New York Times and Politico.

The reported order would place OMB, a White House budget office not staffed with scientific reviewers, over NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya on funding decisions the agency currently makes through its own peer-review process.

What would the executive order do?

According to the reporting cited by Ars Technica, the draft order would give Vought sign-off authority on every grant the NIH awards, not just broad categories of research. The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, with a $47 billion budget that Ars Technica says exceeds the combined budgets of the next 10 largest research funders. That money moves mostly through grants to university-based researchers and underwrites work ranging from basic biology to clinical trials, funding that has also helped sustain the biotechnology industry, per the outlet.

The move surfaced from a White House meeting described by The Washington Post in which Bhattacharya tried to block the plan and, per the Post's account as relayed by Ars Technica, lost the argument.

Why does Vought want control over NIH grants?

"Vought seems to feel that it has funded a lot of 'woke' research." — Ars Technica, Sept. 21, 2026

Vought has pushed for months to steer NIH funding away from research he and administration allies view as ideologically driven, according to Ars Technica's account of his prior actions. The outlet reports he has repeatedly tried other routes to the same end before proposing direct veto power over each grant.

How has NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya responded?

Bhattacharya objected to the plan in the White House meeting, according to the Post reporting cited by Ars Technica. The outlet notes the objection was not automatic: Bhattacharya has used his post to reverse funding for a range of research areas he considers politically sensitive and has been reluctant to publicly contradict Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on scientific claims, according to Ars Technica. Even so, he pushed back against ceding grant-by-grant authority to an outside political appointee.

What happened with earlier attempts to cut NIH funding?

The veto proposal follows a string of setbacks for the administration's efforts to reshape NIH funding through other means, Ars Technica reports:

• Early in Trump's second term, the NIH terminated grants tied to topics including pandemic preparedness and health disparities.
• The administration proposed a budget that would have cut the NIH by nearly half; Congress rejected that cut.
• A court voided the policy behind the grant terminations.
• Vought then proposed new funding rules making political considerations central to grant approval; Congress put that rule on hold as well.

Having been blocked by both Congress and the courts on broader moves, Vought turned to the narrower but more sweeping mechanism of a line-item veto over individual grants, according to the Politico reporting cited by Ars Technica.

What is the Harvard connection?

Politico's reporting, as described by Ars Technica, ties the timing to Trump's ongoing dispute with Harvard University. The administration suspended grant funding to several universities early in Trump's term and sought payments from them to restore funding and drop investigations. Harvard refused and won a lawsuit restoring its funding. When reports emerged that Harvard had reached a settlement without a payment, Trump demanded $1 billion from the university as part of any deal, according to Ars Technica. In the White House meeting, Vought reportedly presented OMB control over NIH grants as an alternative way to target Harvard's funding directly.

What to watch next

• Whether the White House formally issues the executive order and its exact legal language once released.
• Whether Congress, which has already blocked two earlier NIH funding moves this term, responds to a grant-by-grant veto structure.
• Whether universities or research groups file suit, given that a court already voided the administration's earlier grant-termination policy.
• Any further reporting from The Washington Post, The New York Times or Politico on the order's scope and whether it singles out Harvard-affiliated grants.

The White House had not released the order's text as of Ars Technica's Sept. 21 report.

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