A federal ‘clown show’: WSU board of regents warns of cuts to research amid Trump federal grant chaos

Washington State University administrators are warning of funding cuts to research amid fallout from the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal grants.

During a board of regents meeting Monday, Provost Chris Riley-Tillman said the cuts amount to an “absolutely massive budgetary challenge no one predicted.”

He said WSU could expect cuts “somewhere in the $20-25 million range” each year.

Riley-Tillman assured researchers currently contracted with WSU that the university will honor their agreements, even if the federal government does not.

“If a graduate student is funded, we’re not going to simply stop funding the graduate student. We have to find funding for that graduate student. It’s easy to say faculty will stop doing that work. But if faculty are partially paid off of the grant, those monies are going to have to be paid,” he said.

The WSU administrator said that even temporarily halting grant recipients could impede research for years to come.

“It could end up setting us back not just years but upwards of a decade to rebuild that sort of capacity,” he said. “We need to be really aggressive over the course of the next six months deciding exactly what we’re going to maintain going forward, and frankly, what we’re not.”

The possible cuts result from the Trump administration’s attempted freeze on federal grants and a separate measure limiting grant funding for indirect research costs. These actions affecting current federal grants have been temporarily halted by federal courts amid legal challenges, but WSU and other universities must plan for fewer federal grants going forward.

“The chaos that’s coming out of Washington, D.C., is just causing all kinds of challenges for public and private higher education in the United States,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said at the meeting. “We’re going to continue to be resilient. We’re going to continue to keep our mind and our focus on why we’re here and what we’re doing. We’re going to continue to support our students, faculty and staff.”

Board of regents member Brett Blankenship called the federal government’s attempt to freeze federal grants a “clown show” and called on Republican elected officials to speak out against Trump on this issue.

“We need to be able to talk to our Republican friends. It has to come from them, because when Democrats speak in this environment, it’s like the teacher on the old Charlie Brown cartoon. No one’s listening,” Blankenship said. “It’s got to be brave Republicans that want to act in the public interest.”

Federal grant freeze

While the administration’s freeze of federal grants has been temporarily halted by federal courts, millions of dollars previously awarded to WSU researchers are still frozen. According to the University, they are currently unable to access $3.6 million primarily funding projects in their Center for Global Health.

“That is still frozen. Even though we had the temporary restraining order, we have still not seen an unfreezing of USAID funding,” WSU Vice President for Research Kim Christen said.

Most USAID work done by the university has not resumed, she added.

WSU currently has 11 federal awards under stop-work orders, seven of which come from the U.S. Agency for International Development. An additional $123,000 from the State Department also remains frozen.

One WSU project highlighted at the meeting was the University’s partnership with the Northwest Hydrogen Association, which conducts research into clean energy production and decarbonization. WSU portions of a Department of Energy grant remain frozen as of Monday.

According to the university, the majority of federal grants have resumed since federal courts blocked implementation of the federal grant freeze. But should the freeze be allowed to recommence, WSU estimates grants from 23 federal agencies could be affected . That amounts to over $231 million worth of grants that fully support 1,130 WSU employees and partially support another 882 workers.

The attempted federal grant freeze was predicated on rooting out programs supporting “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives. The university believes its grant-funded programs would not run afoul of the executive order, though that belief is reliant upon the opinion of Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat.

“Our position in consultation with the AG’s office is that because access and opportunity for all are core to our land grant mission, the university doesn’t interpret the work in these areas and conflicting with those parameters. And more to the point is that WSU is in compliance with existing anti-discrimination laws,” Christen said.

Indirect cost rate change

While the freeze on federal grants has gotten the most attention, another federal directive promises to be “much more disruptive,” Christen said.

The National Institute of Health issued a directive Feb. 6 to retroactively cap all grant-indirect rates at 15%.

When researchers receive a federal grant, an additional amount is set aside for the university for costs related to building maintenance, equipment and other administrative costs. These funds cover costs incurred because of the research but do not directly relate to the research itself.

Previously, each university negotiated with the federal government over the indirect reimbursement rate. The 15% cap would be much lower than the rates most universities have negotiated. According to Christen, WSU currently has an indirect negotiated rate of up to 53% for on-campus research and 26% for off-campus.

The NIH directive was halted temporarily by a federal court last week. Had it been allowed to go into effect, WSU estimates the university would have lost $5 million in federal funding in 2025 alone.

While the 15% cap may not be changed for current grants retroactively, the university anticipates it will be implemented on future federal NIH grants. If other federal agencies implement the same requirement, WSU estimates it will lose $23.5 million a year.

“I have much more confidence that it’s going to be difficult for the federal government to back out of current agreements that we have signed at this point. What we’re talking about then is, if it’s all future grants, what would the loss be going into the future?” Riley-Tillman asked.