White House drafts order giving Vought veto power over NIH grants

September 21, 2026 at 09:40 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The White House is drafting an executive order that would give Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought veto power over every National Institutes of Health grant. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya objected to the move during a contentious White House meeting. The order follows Vought's repeated efforts to place NIH funding under political control.

Key Facts

The draft executive order would give OMB Director Russell Vought veto power over every individual NIH grant.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya objected to the plan during a White House meeting, according to The Washington Post.
The NIH budget is $47 billion, larger than the next 10 research funders combined.
Vought previously proposed new grant rules making political considerations key determinants, but Congress put that rule on hold.
Vought reportedly presented OMB control of NIH grants as an alternate means of targeting Harvard University.

The White House Meeting

The Washington Post reported on a contentious White House meeting where NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya tried to fend off an effort to place funding decisions under political control. The move came from Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, which has sought to limit and control research funds. The Post suggested that Bhattacharya ended up on the losing side of the fight. The New York Times and Politico later confirmed and expanded on the initial leak.

Vought's Targeting of Harvard

According to Politico, Vought leveraged Trump's desire to harm Harvard University. Early in his second term, Trump suspended all grant funding to a number of universities, seeking large payments in exchange for restoring funding and dropping investigations. Harvard declined to go along and eventually won a lawsuit that restored the funding. When news reports suggested Harvard had agreed to a settlement without a payoff, Trump immediately demanded $1 billion from Harvard as part of any settlement. In the White House meeting, Vought reportedly presented OMB control of NIH grants as an alternate means of targeting Harvard.