Pentagon · US Congress · Ars Technica
NIH to apply part of its budget to pay for Department of Defense research
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◌ Single Source
Late last week, word started leaking that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had reached an agreement with the Department of Defense that would see part of the NIH’s budget used to fund research at the Department of Defense.
Key facts
- There’s obviously an enormous disparity between the budgets of these two agencies, given that the 2026 Defense budget is roughly $1 trillion
- Late last week, word started leaking that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had reached an agreement with the Department of Defense that would see part of the NIH’s budget used to fund research
- Reporting by Nature suggests that the Department of Defense was looking for up to a third of its total budget but was being told to settle for about 10 percent
- Patty Murray (D-Wash.), to accuse the parties of simply using the agreement as a way to transfer money to the Pentagon without congressional approval
Summary
The agreement itself sets up a system where the NIH would transfer money to the Department of Defense to fund staff and projects that would “support the advanced development of medical countermeasures against pandemic influenza, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, and emerging infectious diseases.” The money would come out of the budget for the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, to which Congress has allocated $6.6 billion in 2026. Left unspecified is how much of the NIAID budget will be spent on Defense projects. There’s obviously an enormous disparity between the budgets of these two agencies, given that the 2026 Defense budget is roughly $1 trillion. That has led some, including Sen.