Hundreds of people gathered on the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday afternoon to protest President Trump's recent spending on research institutions.
The Trump administration took steps to disrupt operations at the country's top federal research institutions since late January, frozen a freeze grant issued by the National Institutes of Health, which issued an executive order on gender, gender and diversity, equity and inclusion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbed health data from its site to comply with those orders.
More recently, the administration has issued a policy that cuts government funding to the National Institutes of Health by reducing the amount of grants that could reach fictitious costs.
NIH is the world's largest biomedical funder, spending $35 billion on research last year alone. Approximately $9 billion of these funds was directed towards “indirect costs” such as facility maintenance and compliance, as well as fees related to salaries of administrative workers.
The NIH has limited the “indirect cost” rate at 15% of the total grant. Many universities and research institutes in the past have used 30-60% additional funding for grants to cover these costs.
Researchers denounced the move, claiming that lowering the “indirect cost” rate would halt life-saving research into diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
“I love my country and I'm worried about my country right now,” Francis Collins, former NIH director, told the sea of protesters who read, “science blocks brain insects,” “dividing cells, not countries,” or “I'm literally trying to cure multiple sclerosis, but it's okay.”
One carried the earth with a piece of paper pasted on it, saying “Save Me.”
Collins was one of a long lineup of speakers, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD.), Rep. Jamie Ruskin (D-MD), former NASA administrator and Sen. Bill Nelson, Bill Foster (D-Ill.), former television personality and scientist Bill Nye.
Speakers included former federal scientists, amateur scientists, students, healthcare workers and disability advocates advocates advocate for Trump and his cabinet, particularly Elon Musk and his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Everything had the same point. An attack on science is an attack on Americans.
“Moving fast and breaking things down could be the right mantra for Silicon Valley… Let's go with 'first, don't harm',” Collins said. Six days ago, Collins resigned from his position at the NIH without explaining his departure.
Friday's rally was seen as a kind of revival of the “science march” that took place during Trump's first term in the White House. A series of satellite protests across the country began to surge while people gathered in Washington.
Collins stressed that there is a need for robust funding for scientific research and institutions given growing concerns about the H5N1 avian flu, measles outbreak in the southwestern region, and the “mystery disease” that plagues the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The US bird flu response was suspended early in Trump's second term after an employee working on the outbreak was misplaced. The agency is now trying to rehire those people.
Meanwhile, a second person died this week from measles in New Mexico. The outbreak in Texas, along the New Mexico border, has infected around 150 people, most of whom are unvaccinated.
“When you advocate for science, you advocate for the health and welfare of Americans,” Van Hollen said.
Nye, commonly known as “scientist Bill Nye,” has urged lawmakers to “stood for science,” and defeated the Trump administration's attempts to curb climate change references. He suggested that there should be legal protection measures to prevent political interference in research, and that scientists should be able to communicate their findings freely.
“Science is part of the American story,” he said. “If the US leads the world, science cannot be restrained.”
