Since President Donald Trump took office on January 2025, a series of executive actions have shaken the research community. Several executive orders were released that targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and climate initiatives and that direct agencies to generate lists of existing grants supporting these activities. Furthermore, on January 27, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo (M-25-13) that ordered a “temporary pause” on “all activities related to disbursement or obligation of all Federal financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”. However, this pause was temporarily blocked in court on January 28 and then rescinded the next day. On January 31, a Federal Court also issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) preventing agencies from pausing, freezing, canceling, or impeding awards. The Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) system was also temporarily down; however, the site has since been restored.
Despite this confusion, federal agencies, including funders of vital importance to the U.S. plant science community, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), continue to actively review their grant portfolios to comply with President Trump’s executive orders. This includes flagging grants that contain keywords related to DEI, taking down or modifying webpages and funding opportunities, and, in some instances, removing public datasets. Luckily, many of these datasets have been preserved in other locations by the research community. Disbursement of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds were also paused; however, another federal judge ordered them to be released. Despite the order, there have not been any reports that researchers are receiving their funds.
NSF has published a website dedicated to informing researchers and the public on the implementation of President Trump’s recent executive orders. Originally, all grantees were directed to cease activity that is non-compliant, including “any… grant activity that uses or promotes the use of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) principles and frameworks”. NSF has since taken down this statement, instead stating, “Consistent with the district court’s order, NSF awardees may continue activities consistent with the current terms and conditions of their NSF awards at this time.” Time will tell exactly when and how DEI activities are affected. The agency is using keyword searches for potential non-allowable activity in reviews of individual awards, which may need to be modified or canceled. Furthermore, the Senate Commerce Committee released a list of NSF grants that contain keywords they oppose; however, it is unclear whether or not NSF will use this list in their reviews. Grant review panels were cancelled through February 7; however, they have resumed as of February 10. Moreover, several DEI programs in the Directorate for Biology have already been archived from the NSF website, including the LEAPS program, which funds the ROOT&SHOOT project that ASPB leads.
As of the time of writing, USDA had yet to release formal guidance on research grants; however, all National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Requests for Applications are currently under review. Despite there being no explicit executive order directing stoppage of climate-related work like that of DEI and foreign aid, employees were directed to take down any agency webpages discussing climate change.
On February 7, and effective February 10, NIH issued a notice that it will be capping F&A rates, which reimburse grantee institution’s indirect costs of federally funded research, to 15%, which is much lower than most institutions’ current negotiated F&A rates. Most plant biologists are not directly funded by the NIH; however, this change could have an indirect, downstream effect on the entire research community. It is also possible that the Administration will propose F&A rate cap changes at other agencies. However, a lawsuit was filed by 22 state attorneys general (AG) that led to a federal judge filing a TRO on the policy change for all states until a hearing can take place.
This is a rapidly developing situation, and federal agencies are taking many swift actions to comply with EOs and other executive actions. ASPB is gathering information as it is released, and it is engaging with sibling organizations across the STEM space toward participating in broader efforts related to the administration’s executive actions, including opportunities to sign on to joint letters to Congress and others. Plant biologists should work with their institutions to assess how to support existing projects that may not receive full funding. For those currently working on solicitations, direct outreach to individual program managers to discuss program elements and deadlines is advisable, although please note that agency personnel are likely to be still receiving guidance and may not have immediate answers to your questions.
ASPB has recently issued a robust statement reaffirming its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The society is also working with our membership and the broader research community that we serve to collect impact stories and data on the short- and longer-term consequences of the executive actions implemented during the first weeks of the Trump Administration on specific programs and grants that you run – including, for example, job losses, disruptions to students, disruptions to long-term research programs, and disruptions to educational programming/training. Our objective is to share these stories with specific Members of Congress and to use them to help inform future advocacy efforts. We are taking this approach because we understand that many congressional offices have been swamped with direct communications from the public to the point that the underlying messages are no longer getting through. By leveraging the relationships that we have nurtured with staff on key congressional committees, we hope to be able to bring the most relevant and important stories to the people who are best suited to take action as a result.
You are also welcome, of course, to reach out directly to your Representatives and Senators (find their names and contact information here) to share your impact stories, both now and as more changes occur. ASPB’s guide on engaging congress can be found here.
* Lewis-Burke Associates (https://lewis-burke.com/) is a full-service government relations firm specializing in advocating for the public policy interests of institutions of higher education and other research and education organizations. ASPB has been working with LBA since 2009 in support of our advocacy priorities.
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