"On Friday, the administration announced that it would cap the overhead, or “indirect” rates, that the National Institutes of Health allows on its grants to universities," writes Ford School professor Don Moynihan in an essay published by The Bulwark. He writes, "It is the Trump administration taking a swing at two favorite targets: science and higher education."
Moynihan writes that this will have wide-ranging effects. "First, the cuts will especially damage medical research, care, and training," and "Second, it will cripple a world-beating American industry."
This attack on the NIH is just one example of what "is becoming a distinct pattern" in the Trump administration.
"The order makes a legal claim that grants the power to make sweeping changes. Everyone panics. Then someone points out it sounds pretty illegal, citing statute and precedent. But we still panic anyway, because we no longer believe the president considers himself bound by the law."
"We are seeing an administration that treats the law as the opening offer in a hardball negotiation while ignoring the actual body that makes laws: Congress."
Moynihan says this is creating a "model of constitutional change without changing the constitution," and "the Trump administration is creating a sense that the law is just vibes now."
