Semafor: "Trump administration backing off NIH grant order amid pushback"

Via Semafor, this news: 

The Trump administration is backing off its initial plan for an executive order that would give the president greater influence over decisionmaking on National Institutes of Health grants, according to three people familiar with the process.

The move comes after Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, pressured the Office of Management and Budget to abandon the effort outright.

While the White House is changing course on the planned order, it still may release one on NIH grants that takes a different tack. The White House and NIH declined to comment.

In an interview with Semafor on Wednesday, Collins said she’s been raising concerns about the politicization of NIH grants since July and believes she’s “making progress” on fending off the executive order....

...“There is still a question of ‘Is it dead?’ versus ‘We don’t actually have a choice but to wait, so we might as well not do this before the midterms,’” said one pharmaceutical industry lobbyist.

If the administration had advanced the original scope of the planned NIH order, it could sink Congress’ ability to pass a stopgap spending bill at the end of the year.

“They have to” pull back, a person familiar with the talks said. “They won’t be able to pass a CR on December 11 if they issue an EO.”

The Trump Administration clearly has targeted NIH for special treatment. It's a shame that it seemingly takes an enormous amount of political pressure from Congress simply for the White House to leave them alone.