JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Capitol’s south lawn was packed Friday as nearly a hundred Missourians protested federal budget cuts as part of a national movement called Stand Up for Science.
“Out of the lab, into the streets,” chanted John Fortner, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency, a new agency tasked with the broad goal of maximizing “governmental efficiency and productivity.” The Trump administration’s quest to increase efficiency has translated into wide-ranging funding cuts — affecting international aid, federal workers and university researchers.
On Feb. 7, the Trump administration issued a directive to cap indirect costs for National Institutes of Health research grants at 15% of the total cost of the grant. In a memo issued by the NIH’s Office of the Director, indirect costs were described as “administrative overhead.” Unlike direct costs, which go towards research salaries and equipment, indirect costs go toward things like electricity, waste disposal or janitorial services.
In fiscal year 2024, Missouri received more than $900 million in NIH research funding. Of that, MU received $98 million, with $28.7 million accounting for indirect costs.
Rally participant John Tavis, a professor of molecular virology at Washington University in St. Louis, called the funding essential and said the Trump administration’s order was an “assault on science.”
“What it’s doing is slashing the guts and disemboweling American science,” Tavis said. “It’s going to destroy not only the health and welfare of Americans, it’s also going to destroy the economy. Research is a major driver of the economy. … Not only is he endangering human lives, he’s endangering the economy.”
The order was temporarily halted by a federal court Wednesday, with U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley writing: “The imminent risk of halting life-saving clinical trials, disrupting the development of innovative medical research and treatment, and shuttering of research facilities, without regard for current patient care, warranted the issuance of a nationwide temporary restraining order.”
This injunction will remain in effect until the matter can be fully addressed in court. However, the funding shake-ups across the federal government have taken a toll.
MU faculty and staff received an email in late February from MU President Mun Choi announcing plans to begin reducing expenses in response to the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts.
State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the federal cuts have come with little to no warning or direction.
“If I was Dr. Choi, I would say, ‘All right, we gotta tighten up,’ because we are going to have less than we’ve had in the past,” Rep. Kent Haden, R-Mexico, said. “‘How much less?’ No one is quite sure.”
Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia, called the cuts “reckless.”
“Everyone knows there needs to be a cut here and there,” Smith said. “The federal government is bloated, but you have to do it with a scalpel, not a hatchet. And this hatchet approach is hurting everyday Americans. It’s hurting Missourians.”
While Haden agrees with the Trump administration’s plan to cut out the “fat” in government, a stance he said he shares with most other Republican state representatives, Haden acknowledges how difficult the cuts will be for Missourians.
“I’m afraid it will be chaotic for a while,” Haden said. “I think people have to keep, just keep their wits about them and be prepared … The state does not have the finances to back up what the federal (government) cuts.”
