Trump directed budget chief to draft order that would put health research funding under his control

President Donald Trump on Friday asked Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to draft an executive order that would create a board to oversee which grants the National Institutes of Health should fund. 

The proposed board would include NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Vought, and it would be required to reach unanimous decisions on grant awards, Politico reported, citing unnamed sources. 

Lawmakers had included a provision in a stopgap funding bill that temporarily blocked the administration from implementing an earlier version of the Vought plan. Cutting funding for Harvard University, the sources told Politico, has been a priority for Trump, and the Vought plan would provide a workaround. 

If executed, the proposed order would give Vought a direct role in determining how the NIH distributes $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money. Vought has led Trump's efforts to pushback on "wokeness" that's rampant in academia, and he's often clashed with Bhattacharya over the administration's approach to scientific research. 

This clash was what prompted Friday's meeting, the Washington Post reported.