Judges Cite Supreme Rulings, Still Block NIH Indirect Costs Cap

"The decision preserves institutions' access to billions of dollars for annual expenses, such as lab costs and patient safety, which arenot easily connected to specific projects. The NIH negotiates individual reimbursement rates with each institution, but a cap would change that and limit funding. U.S. District Court of Massachusetts judge Angel Kelley first blocked the rate cap last February, and it has remained blocked since."

"But in last year's ruling about the NIH's grant terminations, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in a majority decisionthat a district court likely did have jurisdiction to rule that the NIH's guidance, upon which it based the grant cancellations, was illegal. The First Circuit reasoned Monday that the NIH's blocked attempt to cap the indirect cost reimbursement rate at 15 percent is a policy like that guidance."

The First Circuit Court of Appeals maintained a block preventing the National Institutes of Health from imposing a 15 percent cap on indirect cost reimbursement rates for grant recipients. The block preserves institutions' access to billions for expenses such as lab costs and patient safety that cannot be tied to specific projects. The NIH currently negotiates individual reimbursement rates with each institution; a uniform cap would limit that funding. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley issued the original block in February. The appeals court cited Supreme Court precedents and distinguished the cap as a policy analogous to prior NIH guidance.

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