From the inbox:
Christian Menefee
Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee announced today that Harris County has joined a national legal fight to protect critical medical research funding. The county is part of a coalition challenging the Trump administration’s recent decision to cut the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for health researchers across the country. These cuts threaten to disrupt life-saving research and medical innovation, and put tens of millions of dollars at risk in the Texas Medical Center.
“Harris County is home to the largest medical center in the world, and these cuts pose a direct threat to public health and our economy,” said County Attorney Menefee. “This funding supports the life-changing work happening at the Texas Medical Center. It’s not just about numbers on a budget sheet—it’s about jobs, patients, and families who rely on medical advancements.”
The coalition, which includes 45 local governments from across the country, has filed an amicus brief arguing that the NIH’s funding cuts are unjustified and would have devastating effects on research institutions and local economies. In Harris County, these cuts could lead to job losses, lab closures, and major setbacks for critical medical research.
“Once again, the Trump administration is playing politics with funding that our communities and economy rely on,” Menefee added. “This fight is about more than just dollar signs; it’s about the future of medical science and the ability of our local universities and hospitals to continue their life-saving research.”
The Texas Medical Center and its partner institutions—including Rice University, the University of Houston, and the Texas Heart Institute—employ over 120,000 people and contribute more than $24 billion each year to Harris County’s economy. Losing NIH funding wouldn’t just impact scientists and doctors; it would also hurt patients who depend on new treatments and medical discoveries being made here in Houston.
See here and here for the background. It’s important that Harris County get in there and defend itself, because as we know by their actions, the Republicans don’t care. I’m happy we got involved and I’m cheering for a good outcome in court.
That said, getting that good outcome isn’t enough.
From the beginning of this drama going on a month ago, the White House has been laser-focused on shutting down government-supported medical research in the United States. Of course, much of that is research into cancer cures or fundamental research building toward the same. The precise goal of all this shutting down is difficult to uncover — likely one half an effort to destroy or exercise control over academic/research institutions mixed with post-COVID hostility to medical research itself. On paper the effort was put on hold by a mix of the White House backing off and the original orders being blocked by judges. But in fact the White House has found very effective workarounds to evade the impact of those court orders. And that evasion, or those alternative paths to shutting down research grants, has accelerated, clamping down even harder this week.
I’m going to try to give a general outline of what’s happening. It’s difficult to describe all of it in detail: First, because a handful of different brakes are being applied at once and, second, because figuring it out is largely the work of people on the receiving end trying to interpret what they’re seeing. When they’re on the disbursing end it can also be difficult to get a full picture because there are different disbursal arms. And the White House/DOGE, etc., are taking various steps to reduce communication within NIH.
[…]
What I can say confidently is that the grant-approval system which the courts believe they have unfrozen remains at least mainly frozen. The White House is likely not technically violating the court order though certainly they are evading the spirit of that order.
I skipped the details because it’s pretty technical, but the bottom line is that there’s more than one way to block the grant money, and the White House is currently using those means. The reporting that Josh Marshall has been doing on this is heavily reliant on people who are directly affected by these actions, so if you are such a person or know such a person, read that post and follow the advice here to send in a tip via normal or encrypted channels. The more we know, the more we can do. The Chron has more.