RFK Jr. Pressured to Fill Vacancies Key to NIH Research Funds

A bipartisan group of lawmakers want Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fill panel vacancies that enable approval of research funding, according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg Government.

Nearly all bodies of the National Institutes of Health have an advisory council, made up of experts who assess the scientific grant applications and approve them, and the lack of legally mandated roles could create a bottleneck for research.

“These advisory councils play a critical role in funding medical research, serving as the final arbiter after NIH study sections review grant applications,” the lawmakers wrote to Kennedy. “The current understaffing of NIH advisory councils will imperil medical research and harm the health of Americans for generations.”

The letter points out that Kennedy rescinded invitations to join the advisory councils in July 2025, and a spate of “critical research” councils — from mental health to infectious disease — will see their current staffing expire by the end of the year. Only one advisory council vacancy across the agency has been filled since the Trump administration began, the letter said.

Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), André Carson (D-Ind.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) are the chief authors of the letter, which was also signed by more than a dozen other lawmakers. The members gave HHS a March 20 deadline to respond to their questions about the vacancies.

Medical Research Scrutiny

NIH research grants, previously an uncontroversial bipartisan effort, have become a point of tension in Trump’s second administration. Early efforts to block medical research grants as a means of curbing government spending were met with fierce opposition, sometimes from within the president’s own party.

At a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing last month, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that the agency was working on filling the advisory council absences.

“I’ve ordered the institutes to nominate new members. We’re working as fast as we can with dozens and dozens and dozens of new members,” Bhattacharya said. “That’s a priority of mine to make sure that those councils are staffed.”

In response to a request for comment this week on the council vacancies, an NIH spokesperson said the agency “is actively appointing new council members, and we do not anticipate any lapse in our ability to make awards.”