Maryland’s federal legislators wrote a letter to the acting head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), expressing their “grave concerns” concerning new temporary restrictions placed on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda by President Donald J. Trump.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin and Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks urged the Trump Administration “to immediately and completely restore operations at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to prevent further research disruptions. The lawmakers stressed that the immediate restoration of agency operations will ensure that NIH can continue to fulfill its mission of advancing lifesaving, world-class medical research for the American people.”
According to the legislators, the new restrictions include a freeze on “all external HHS communications and suspension of critical meetings.”
These restrictions “have already sharply disrupted operations and the research grant process, producing administrative chaos that jeopardizes NIH’s mission in the short and long term,” they wrote.
In the letter, the legislators urge HHS “to swiftly end the external communications freeze across the Department and resume federal advisory committees, study sections, patient engagement, and travel for staff at NIH.”
