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28 January 20259 minute read

HHS implements communication freeze: Top points

Last week, Acting Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dorothy Fink instructed federal health agencies within the HHS to freeze all external communications, including health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites, and social media posts. The freeze directs officials to refrain from issuing any guidance, regulation, notice, or grant announcement until approved by a presidential appointee.

Per Acting Secretary Fink’s memo, the communications freeze is in effect through February 1, 2025 but could be extended in length and to other agencies. A pause in communications is not uncommon at the start of a new administration, but questions remain as to how long this mandate could last and whether it might become more wide-ranging.

There are some immediate impacts to scientific research and grantees that could extend to other departments and agencies. These include:

Travel: Per an email from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Financial Management, all sponsored travel for HHS personnel is frozen other than what is necessary to bring currently traveling NIH personnel home. “Future travel requests for any reason are not authorized and should not be approved,” the email stated.

Meetings: Meetings ranging from training workshops to scientific advisory councils have been suspended. These include panels that were scheduled to review grant proposals. In addition, agency staff cannot meet with patient groups or release newsletters or other information intended to recruit patients into trials. This functionally pauses any new grant monies from being disbursed and any new clinical trials within the agency from proceeding.

Study sections: Several meetings of NIH study sections, which review applications for fellowships and grants, have been canceled and not yet rescheduled. Peer review via study sections is required by law in order for the NIH to disburse most of its $40 billion annual extramural budget, and the cancellation of study sections could lead to interruptions in funding for grantees. This could also have a cascading impact on academic institutions’ abilities to pay staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students, among others, and therefore could have a particularly acute impact on colleges and universities.

Biodefense and infectious diseases

Administration officials have stated that “HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health” and that there “are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.” Ostensibly, this could affect time-sensitive issues affecting the public health, such as pending reports on the H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in dairy cows and poultry that were slated to be published, but that is not yet clear.

Also unclear is how this could impact offices under the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), including the Center for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). ASPR and BARDA, as well as offices such as the Center for the Strategic National Stockpile, deal primarily in emergency health issues and could be exempt based on the administration’s comments. Moreover, Acting Secretary Fink’s memo directs staff to notify the Office of the Executive Secretary of any documents that should not be subject to this freeze, including those that “affect critical health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security functions.” However, because these metrics are inherently subjective, that possible exemption is also unclear.

Potential impact of freeze on life sciences companies

Because the memorandum and other recent executive orders deal in broad themes, the specific impact on individual companies is not yet clear. These are particular factors we are monitoring:

Product approvals: Theoretically, the FDA can continue to approve drug and device applications without a formal announcement, but there is no clarity on how that works at this time.

Industry-funded employees: The government-wide hiring freeze contains some exceptions but makes no explicit provision for FDA staff funded through industry user fees. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may grant exemptions from this freeze, but there has been no indication yet as to whether those might apply to vacant reviewer positions.

Grants: Because unawarded grant monies are frozen as a result of the communications freeze, corporate partnerships with universities and other grantees could be impacted if those grantees cannot pay lab staff, keep research animals or insects alive, or complete technology transfer.

Community-specific drug developments: Companies have made substantial investments in how the social determinants of health and certain diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, disproportionately impact different racial communities. The combination of a functional freeze on grant monies with uncertainty over implementation of the administration’s order prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs could impact how these drug developments proceed.

Other agencies

While there is a federal government-wide hiring freeze, the pause on communications and certain activities is presently limited to HHS. It would be fair, however, to assume that similar actions could be implemented at other agencies. The FY2024 budget allocated about $194.6 billion to research and development (R&D) investments concentrated in a few federal departments and agencies. In FY2023, six agencies received nearly 95 percent of total federal R&D funding, with the Department of Defense (DOD) at 46.2 percent, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at 24.0 percent. Combined, these two agencies accounted for more than 70 percent of all federal R&D funding. The remainder primarily went to the Department of Energy (DOE), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Commerce (DOC).

Based on the budgetary table provided above by the Congressional Research Service, cognizant of the fact that the federal government is still operating under a continuing resolution for funding and recognizing that many of these monies have already been awarded, a broadening of this executive order could impact well over $100 billion in federal grants, close to half of which is concentrated in basic and applied research. The federal government is the nation’s largest supporter of basic research, funding 40 percent of the research in 2022 (the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available), and the second largest supporter of applied research at 29 percent, concentrated primarily at HHS, NSF, DOE, and DOD.

Department of Defense

DOD’s R&D funding comes through the department’s Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation. RDT&E funds support activities such as R&D performed by academic institutions, DOD laboratories, and companies, as well as test and evaluation activities at specialized DOD facilities. This includes Defense Health Program funds to support congressionally directed research on breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer; traumatic brain injuries; orthopedics; and other medical conditions. More than half of DOD’s basic research budget is spent at universities, with DOD a substantial source of federal funds for university R&D in certain fields, including industrial and manufacturing engineering (64 percent); aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering (62 percent); electrical, electronic, and communications engineering (58 percent); metallurgical and materials engineering (48 percent); mechanical engineering (47 percent); computer and information sciences (46 percent); and materials science (38 percent).

Department of Energy

The DOE conducts basic scientific research in fields ranging from nuclear physics to the biological and environmental sciences; basic and applied R&D relating to energy production and use; and R&D on nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, and defense nuclear reactors. The department has a system of 17 national laboratories around the country, mostly operated by contractors that together account for about 40 percent of all DOE expenditures.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has research programs in planetary science, earth science, astrophysics, heliophysics, the biological and physical sciences, aeronautics, and astronaut health and performance, as well as development programs for future human spacecraft and multipurpose space technology, such as advanced propulsion systems. In addition, NASA operates the International Space Station (ISS) as a facility for R&D and other purposes. About half of NASA funding supports R&D. Some accounts (such as Science and Space Technology) fund R&D almost exclusively, while others (such as Exploration and Space Operations) fund a mix of R&D, testing and demonstration, operations, and other activities.

National Science Foundation

NSF supports basic research and education in the nonmedical sciences and engineering. NSF is a major source of federal support for US university research, especially in social sciences, mathematics, and computer science. Of NSF’s six appropriations accounts, three are used for R&D: Research and Related Activities (RRA, the main research account), STEM Education (EDU, the main education account), and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC). Together, these three accounts comprise 95 percent of the roughly $9 billion in R&D funding for NSF.

Department of Agriculture

USDA conducts intramural research at federal facilities with federally employed scientists and supports extramural research at universities and other facilities through competitive grants and capacity (formula-based) funding. The four agencies of USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area carry out the department’s research and education activities. These agencies are the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the principal intramural research agency; the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the principal extramural research agency; the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), which undertakes a variety of surveys to capture relevant data; and the Economic Research Service (ERS), which applies economic analysis to a wide range of topics related to food and agriculture.

Department of Commerce

Two DOC agencies have major R&D programs: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NIST research provides measurement, calibration, and quality assurance methods and techniques that support US commerce, technological progress, product reliability, manufacturing processes, and public safety. In FY2024, the agency received just over $1 billion in R&D program funding. NOAA conducts scientific research in areas such as coastal and marine ecosystems, the atmosphere, global climate change, weather, and oceans; collects and disseminates data on the oceans and atmosphere; and manages coastal and marine species and environments. NOAA concentrates its R&D priorities in three thematic areas: (1) reduction of societal impacts from hazardous weather and other environmental phenomena, (2) sustainable use and stewardship of ocean and coastal resources, and (3) a robust and effective research, development, and transition enterprise. In FY2024, the agency received just under $1.25 billion in R&D program funding.

It is important to reiterate that, as of this writing, none of the non-HHS accounts are impacted by the White House’s aforementioned directives. But, if those freezes were extended to other agencies – presumably as part of the administration’s goals of dramatically reducing or reallocating spending – these are areas that could be impacted by a decline in R&D funding.

For more information, please contact the authors.