HHS internal memo details legal strategy for grant terminations

As the National Institutes of Health recently paused its campaign to terminate billions of dollars in grants, its parent agency was starting to lay out a more cautious and legally rigorous strategy for canceling research deemed out of step with Trump administration priorities, an internal memo shows. 

Guidance from the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services, obtained by STAT, outlines a new legal advisory process and advice to staffers on the justifications for terminations that could make them less susceptible to court challenges. 

The guidance comes amid several legal defeats the agency has faced as a result of the grant terminations. In June, federal Judge William G. Young ruled in two lawsuits that some NIH grant terminations were “void and illegal.” In another suit, referenced in the guidance, HHS was prohibited from canceling $11 billion in public health funding for 23 states and the District of Columbia, which sued the administration.