Wins, losses in shifting federal funding landscape for WSU

Potential impacts to research funding at Washington State University from recent federal directives are being lessened, but university leaders say that projects and programs are still expected to lose millions of dollars. 

The recent ruling from a federal judge indefinitely blocked the Trump administration’s planned cap on cost reimbursements on grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health, according to a release. WSU stood to lose $5 million per year if the lower cap was implemented. 

The judge in that case cited in her order Leslie Brunelli, WSU’s chief financial officer and an executive vice president, regarding her comments on current university research into treatment for prostate cancer. 

“This is time-sensitive work, and any disruption would result in immediate and potentially irreplaceable data loss on these active tests, which would delay and could ultimately eliminate the viability of the treatment they are researching,” Brunelli said in her statement to the court. 

However, university researchers and programs haven’t emerged fully unscathed. 

• Currently, four projects funded by federal awards are under stop work orders, with a total frozen balance of more than $2.7 million. The most significant of these projects is related to the U.S. Department of Energy’s support for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub, which has components in the Tri-Cities. 
• Congress’ passage and Trump’s signing of a continuing resolution to fund the federal government in early March means four WSU projects worth more than $11 million and slated for a 2025 appropriations bill will not be funded and the process for getting them approved must restart. However, other projects, including those related to work on the WSU Tri-Cities campus regarding aviation biofuels and the effects of smoke exposure on wine grapes, will continue to receive funding. 
• Eight grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, worth a total of $3.5 million were canceled, university leaders recently told WSU’s Board of Regents. A recent Supreme Court ruling will allow the university to bill for work already conducted on the grants through mid-February, which should bring in more than $734,000. 
• More than a hundred staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service associated with the university have been fired, rehired and now are on temporary leave, disrupting their work.