Protect Research Universities from Government Interference (UPDATED 10/2)

Updates

Oct 2, 2025: The Trump administration sent a memo to 9 universities urging them to sign a new “compact” pledging support for Trump’s political agenda to ensure their access to federal funding. Terms of the compact include caps on international students, strict gender definitions, and changes to governance structures to protect conservative ideas. The administration is considering extending this requirement to all universities.

In addition to repeated efforts to cut NIH and NSF research funding across the board through illegal impoundment or budget rescissions, the Trump administration has now begun targeting individual universities. They threatened and forced monetary settlements Brown, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, and have now blocked the distribution of already approved grants for UCLA and Duke among other research institutions. The administration is citing various forms of “discrimination” as their rationale, but it is apparent that this is only the latest attempt to carry out their anti-DEI crusade, with the added bonus of being able to make claims about cutting costs.

The United States has a long history of being a scientific world leader, in no small part due to merit-based funding from the NIH and NSF that boosted academic research without government interference. Now, the Trump administration is holding academic research hostage under the guise of fairness and efficiency, doing untold damage to current and future scientific advancements.

Our elected representatives have the opportunity - and the responsibility - to not only protect the overall funding for science and research with robust congressional appropriations, but also to speak out against these targeted attacks on research universities which are throttling scientific progress in this country.