Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints

ACLU of Northern California (Sep 16)

"Today, researchers filed a class action lawsuit challenging the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) policy of blocking grants in order to censor views it disagrees with, on everything from DEI to gender identity to climate change. The lawsuit alleges that NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research, is unconstitutionally censoring research and allowing political ideology to override scientific expertise in determining which projects receive federal funding, contrary to congressional mandates. ...

"NIH is using a troubling list of 235 keywords as proxies to identify grants or researchers likely to express or support perspectives this administration does not like. The forbidden terms include “equity,” “advancing diversity,” “racist,” “gender,” “Latinx,” “climate change,” and “pregnant individual,” among others. This list is being used to review grant applications as well. Some grants and applications are summarily terminated or denied, while NIH has sought to renegotiate others, requiring researchers to scrub their grant materials of flagged words. If the researcher refuses, NIH terminates the grant or stops the application from advancing."

See also a previous DCSS news item, "Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH" (Sep 11)

Update: The Alliance for Higher Education (Sep 15)

"The U.S. Department of Education (USED) published a proposed rule that would make several significant changes to the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR), the rules governing USED’s management of federal competitive and formula education grants.
 
"Over the past 19 months, the Administration has taken unprecedented actions to freeze, cancel, and terminate federal grants. With this proposed rule, USED seeks to codify into EDGAR the Administration’s preferred approach—infusing political and policy preferences into grantmaking and providing the Executive Branch with broad power over appropriated funds. These proposed revisions threaten the stability of federal funding and risk disrupting ongoing program activities and scientific research.

"Public comments are due by Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET. It is critical that USED receives comments on the harmful impacts of these proposed changes. Before finalizing new regulations, federal agencies must respond to all significant comments and explain their decision-making process.
 
"How to Take Action: Use this EDGAR Public Comment Toolkit for templates, guidance, and an overview of key provisions, drafted with support from EducationCounsel.

[Original post from Aug 26]

Originally distributed by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American U. and George Washington U.

"The U.S. Department of Education released a proposed rule amending the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR), which govern Department grantmaking, to align with a proposed rule published by the Office of Management and Budget earlier this year. The proposed changes include making it easier for the Secretary to cancel or decline to continue grants “for convenience.” 

Comments are due on September 23; for information on writing effective comments, please reach out to peercenter@american.edu.

Regulations.gov: 2026-17239 EDGAR NPRM, Posted by the Department of Education on Aug 24, 2026

Education Department proposal would make it easier to end grants

K-12 Dive (Aug 21)

"The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to give itself more leeway in how and why it cancels federal grant funding, according to a proposed rule scheduled to be published in the Federal Register Monday. 

"The rule would codify controversial approaches to canceling funding that have landed the agency in hot water in the last year, during which a slew of grant funds were abruptly ended because the Education Department said they don’t align with the Trump administration’s priorities. 

"The changes would include allowing the department to cancel discretionary funds “for convenience” — a term that grantmaking and education experts say is broad, vague and atypical for discretionary grants to be subject to. 

“The proposed changes would ensure that the Department retain ongoing programmatic discretion after an award is made, consistent with law, to terminate a discretionary award for convenience,” the proposed changes state."

See previous DCSS news items on the OMB proposed rule here.

"America’s Compact for Higher Education is our united response to the Trump administration’s effort to bend the will of America’s higher ed leadership to his authoritarian control. ...

"Our higher education system is one of the core pillars for democracy in America and one of the most well-traveled pathways to achieving the American Dream. ... The value of an American education stems from its ability to provide not only educational opportunities, but also access to independent centers of thought necessary to promote the free exchange of ideas in a protected space devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, truth, and wisdom. The combination of education, opportunity, and access has elevated hundreds of millions of people, creating lasting impacts on community and culture. ...

"Please read and share America’s Compact for Higher Education with your institution’s leadership..., insisting that they join us in this Compact of historical resistance."

America’s Compact for Higher Education is an initiative of Stand Up For Science, and is endorsed by the American Association of Colleges & Universities, The American Association of University Professors, The Alliance for Higher Education, the American Federation of Teachers, Democracy Forward, and Public Citizen.

[Original news item from Sep 15]

From Mark Mather, Population Reference Bureau (Sep 9)

“A new proposed rule, scheduled for publication tomorrow (Sept. 10), would make two independent but related changes to the decennial census. First, it would establish new residence criteria under which foreign citizens who are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents would not be counted for congressional apportionment. Second, it would prohibit questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation on questionnaires used for census enumeration, while still allowing questions on biological sex, date of birth, and household relationships for data verification purposes. These changes would mark a major break with more than two centuries of census practice: Race data have been collected in every census since 1790, and both citizens and noncitizens who usually reside in the United States have historically been included in congressional apportionment.”

Federal Register notice (Sep 10): “Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions” (Comment by 10/13)

“Trump officials propose sweeping changes to the census that would reshape voting maps” NPR (Sep 10)

Resources (updated 9/18)

Hands Off Our Census: A project of dataindex.us, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, and others.

Roadmap to the 2030 Census. "...a guiding document of milestones and actions leading to the goal of a 'complete count' of all persons in the United States during the 2030 Census. ... represents the collected wisdom of experienced leaders and experts from organizations committed to ensuring a fair and accurate decennial census, which in turn strengthens our democracy."

Proposed Changes to the 2030 U.S. Census: Resources curated by IPUMS for responding to Docket number USBC-2026-0628

Rapid Response Data Briefing, “The Census Is in Trouble: What You Need to Know About Proposed Changes” (Sep 18)

Background from Pew Research Center (11/3/2025): Short read “The changing categories the U.S. census has used to measure race” Data essay: “Counting Race: How the Census Measures Identity and What Americans Think About It” 

See previous DCSS news items:

“Trump officials cut political interference ban after unusual Census Bureau report” (Sep 6)
“Further Updates on Census and Commerce Dept Data Changes” (Aug 23)

Federal Register Notice to Extend and Redesign the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

Resources curated by IPUMS NHIS for responding to Federal Register Docket No. CDC-2026-1387

“On August 20 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a Federal Register notice inviting public comment on a proposal to extend NHIS data collection in 2027 and a proposed systemic redesign of the NHIS to be implemented in 2028.

“The changes described in the Federal Register notice are proposed to reduce operational costs and respondent burden. Broadly speaking, they represent a substantial reduction in the number of core content items and considerable overlap in items across the adult and child questionnaires. There are 161 questions on the proposed sample adult questionnaire and 89 questions on the sample child questionnaire, with 63 identical questions across the questionnaires and 6 very similar questions, leaving 92 unique questions for adults and 20 unique questions for children.”

Food insecurity in the D.C. area hits a new high

The 51st (Sep 15)

"Velle Perkins, a Ward 1 resident, has long had to be strategic to feed her family, visiting food banks like Bread for the City and Martha’s Table, and shopping at discount grocery stores like Walmart, Lidl, and Dollar Tree. Last month, she had to stop working because of a health condition, she said, forcing her to squeeze her budget even tighter.

“Every day, I don't know what I'm gonna have to pick and choose,” said 53-year-old Perkins.

"More and more D.C. residents are in the same boat, according to a report from Capital Area Food Bank that came out today. The 2026 Hunger Report showed that food insecurity in the D.C. region is worse than it’s been in five years — worse even than around the height of the pandemic. 

"According to the report, 38% of households in the greater Washington region — which includes D.C. and nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia — experienced food insecurity over the past year, compared to 36% in the previous year’s report, an increase resulting from a combination of low-income residents like Perkins continuing to struggle and other households experiencing food insecurity for the first time, including laid-off federal workers."

"The Justice 21 Committee of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) is currently working on another iteration of the publication Agenda for Social Justice. This iteration of the series – Agenda for Social Justice: Solutions for 2028 – is a U.S.-focused volume, and it intentionally coincides with the Presidential election cycle. It is designed to provide accessible insights into some of the most pressing social problems and proposes practicable public policy responses to those problems.

"This project affirms the resiliency and commitment of the SSSP to social justice scholarship. This volume will be an “agenda for social justice,” in that it will contain specific recommendations for action for elected officials, policy makers, and community members. This work is scheduled to be published by Policy Press, an imprint of Bristol University Press, as a project in public sociology.

"Please review the Call for Chapter Proposals {PDF] and the Guidelines for Contributors [PDF], and submit your 1 to 2-page proposal using the Google Form by October 30, 2026. Chapter drafts will be due April 9, 2027, and final manuscripts will be due August 20, 2027. Final contributions will be limited to 3000 words maximum (or roughly ten double-spaced manuscript pages). The volume is expected to launch in August 2028."

Conference Theme: “Shattering Stigma: Let Your Light Shine. Break the Stigma.”

A Hybrid Conference Hosted by Howard University Wednesday, November 18, 2026 – Friday, November 20, 2026

Deadline for Submission Extended: Monday, September 21, 2026 by 5:00pm (EDT)

"This hybrid conference aims to increase awareness of the stigma associated with HIV and other health conditions as well as explore interventions to eradicate this stigma. This conference also serves to educate healthcare providers and the general public about stigma as both a major barrier to the prevention and treatment of illnesses and as well as a human rights violation. We are looking for original research that addresses HIV stigma or other mental or physical health-related stigma to be presented as a VIRTUAL POSTER during the conference virtual poster sessions on Wednesday, November 18, 2026 and Thursday, November 19, 2026. During the virtual poster sessions, each presenter will have the opportunity to give a live or pre-recorded presentation of their work with a live Q & A session to follow. Abstracts that focus on this year’s theme of, “Shattering Stigma: Let Your Light Shine. Break the Stigma” are particularly encouraged. A limited number of non-research, community-based project posters may be accepted for presentation during the virtual poster sessions."

Read the complete call in the attached PDF

"To commemorate the 25th anniversary of City & Community, the Editors-in-Chief are pleased to announce a one-day conference to be held at Georgetown University on April 23, 2027. The conference will showcase research by the next generation of urban sociologists in conversation with established scholars in the field. We invite submissions from graduate students and postdocs whose work contributes to the study of cities and community life.

"Accepted participants will present their work on panels alongside other emerging scholars, with each panel anchored by a senior faculty discussant. There will also be professional development opportunities, including small group mentoring and a presentation on how to publish in City & Community by the editors. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to all participants.

"A travel stipend will be available to help offset costs for accepted presenters, scaled to distance traveled so that emerging scholars coming from farther away receive additional support.

"We invite faculty and other urban sociologists to attend the conference as non-presenters. Faculty attendance is central to the spirit of the event: the conference is designed to put emerging scholars in conversation with the broader field."

Submission deadline: November 15th, 2026
Notification of acceptance: December 15th, 2026
Interest form for non-presenters open: January 1, 2027
Conference: Friday, April 23, 2027

See complete details in the attached PDF file

[Updated with a petition link below; original item posted 9/6 follows]

Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH

Nature (Sep 4, requires subscription for full text)

"The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking to redirect research projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars from its infectious-diseases institute to military biodefence programmes at the US Department of Defense (DOD), according to two NIH employees.

"They confirmed to Nature that the NIH and the DOD, also called the Department of War, have signed an agreement for the arrangement. The NIH is now identifying projects it would transfer to the DOD and aims to complete the agreement by the end of September, when the fiscal year ends and some funds expire, according to a third NIH employee who is a senior official at the agency. (The employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.) 

"... The agreement would establish a pathway to move funding out of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the country’s premier infectious-disease research institute, to support defence initiatives and will last 10 years, according to the three sources. The full agreement has not yet been finalized, the sources say.

"Biosecurity researchers warn that shifting biomedical research to the military threatens the transparency and clinical translation that define NIH-funded work. “The Department of Defense is just not set up to deliver the scientific innovations we have come to expect and rely on from NIH,” says Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland."

Defense Officials Attempt to Raid NIH Funds to Cover Department of Defense Activities

US House Appropriations Committee Democrats (Sep 3)

"House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) has learned that officials at the Department of Defense (DoD) are working to divert billions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to supplement the Department’s budget.

"Without notifying Congress or the American people, DoD has signed an interagency agreement that could give the Department access to billions of dollars that Congress provided to NIH for critical biomedical research. These funds were provided to support research to develop treatments or cures for infectious diseases such as influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, Ebola, and other dangerous pathogens."

Stand Up For Science Petition to Congress

"...We, the undersigned, agree and demand you, the US Congress, as the elected representatives of the people of the United States of America, must immediately submit and pass emergency legislation terminating this extralegal transfer of NIH funding to Hegseth’s Department of War."