A federal judge has further blocked the National Institutes of Health from implementing a policy to crackdown on how much money it doles out for indirect costs associated with grants it awards.
NIH announced a plan last month to set the rate at 15% across the board.
"The United States should have the best medical research in the world. It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead. NIH is accordingly imposing a standard indirect cost rate on all grants of 15% pursuant to its 45 C.F.R. 75.414(c) authority," the NIH explained in a notice last month.
But the agency has been blocked from implementing the policy as challenges play out in court.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, who had issued a temporary restraining order last month, granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday.
"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 to maintain the status quo, until the matter could be fully addressed before the Court," the court document declared.
"Following full briefing and oral argument by the parties, as well as review of accepted amicus briefs, the Court GRANTS a nationwide preliminary injunction," the document states.
After then-President Joe Biden nominated Kelley to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2021, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to confirm the jurist to the role.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., scolded Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for engaging in "shameful and egregious behavior" during President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress. The speaker, who booted Green from the House chamber, accused the lawmaker of violating House rules "deliberately."
The speaker’s post on X condemning Green’s behavior comes just hours after a resolution to censure the Texas Democrat survived an attempt by his party to table it.
Speaker Johnson wrote in a post on X that Green "disgraced the institution of Congress" with his protest during Trump's address. He also urged Democrats to join in voting for the censure.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., introduced the resolution punishing Green on Wednesday. Now that it has survived the Democrats’ push to table it, the resolution will likely be headed for a House-wide vote today.
The resolution likely did not come as a surprise to Green, who, upon his expulsion from the speech, told the press he would be "willing to suffer whatever punishment" came about from the incident. In fact, Green tweeted on Thursday reminding his followers on X about the upcoming censure vote.
While there were multiple resolutions to censure Green, Fox News Digital was told that Newhouse had been in contact with House GOP leadership about his resolution since Trump's speech ended.
"I think [Green's protest is] unprecedented. Certainly in the modern era. It wasn't an excited utterance. It was a, you know, planned, prolonged protest," Speaker Johnson told reporters on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, Green began shouting after President Trump called the 2024 election "a mandate like has not been seen in many decades," and touting the GOP’s victories.
Johnson issued Green a warning and asked him to take his seat. When Green refused and continued protesting, the speaker asked the Sergeant at Arms to remove the Texas Democrat from the room.
"The president said he had a mandate, and I was making it clear to the president that he no mandate to cut Medicaid," Green told press in the hallway outside of Trump’s address. He then called on President Trump to "save Medicaid," something that was written on several paddles used in the Democrats’ silent protest of the speech.
Rep. Green was the first and only Democrat to actively disrupt the president’s speech on Tuesday night. Other Democrats held up signs and many walked out of the speech early.
The resolution to censure, if it passes, does not carry any consequences, rather it serves as a formal condemnation of Green by the House. Other lawmakers who have faced censure include former Rep. Adam Schiff, former Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Aishah Hasnie contributed to this report.
America is one of the world's biggest food importers. It depends on other countries for over half of its fruit and seafood. Now, President Donald Trump is implementing tariffs on many of these countries, which could drive prices up. Let's take a look at where America imports food from and what's at stake as tariffs go into effect.
Happy almost Friday! If you're indulging in a Thirsty Thursday — Do people still call it that? —don't be surprised if happy hour looks a bit gray. While millennials and Gen Zers are cutting back on booze, the number of boomers tipping one (or a few) back is rising.
The tech giant is rethinking how it evaluates employees, according to Business Insider's Ashley Stewart, who spoke to several people with knowledge of the plans.
The result could be Microsoft taking a tougher stance on employees deemed low performers. Evidence of that came earlier this year when Microsoft made hundreds of performance-based cuts in January and February.
In many ways, it's a blast from the past for Microsoft, which once had a reputation for conducting tough reviews. The arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO more than a decade ago changed that, with the company taking a softer stance. Some even called Microsoft a "country club."
Microsoft's current process for managing out low performers can take months of documentation. One high-level manager told Ashley the average time to exit a low performer after a manager notified HR was about seven months. That process can be further delayed if an employee takes a leave of absence, which can reset the clock.
But with the AI race heating up, Microsoft wants to move faster and more efficiently. Like its peers Meta, Amazon, and Google, that's meant taking a deeper look at its performance review and management process.
Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
Microsoft's potential pivot also shows where AI's had the most impact thus far.
Since ChatGPT's arrival a few years ago, there's been plenty of speculation about all the jobs that were at risk of being automated away by AI.
The reality, though, is the tech isn't advanced enough to replace most roles completely. Efficiencies can be achieved that allow a company to cut some headcount, but AI hasn't completely wiped out jobs in most cases.
In fact, the industry AI is disrupting the most is the one building it: tech.
It's not just a matter of AI automating people's jobs. (Although those are looking dicey for software engineers.) The massive bets tech giants are making on AI are forcing them to recalibrate their entire operations to be as streamlined as possible, and those changes don't come easy.
Perhaps the shift was always coming. The rise of interest rates and the maturation of these companies might have naturally led to a stage of buckling down.
But spending billions on tech that hasn't fully panned out from a business perspective certainly didn't slow things down.
1. Federal workers' layoff pains will be mostly invisible in Friday's jobs report. DOGE's February firings won't be reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report because of the cuts' timing. And even though the job losses will appear in a more distant report, they probably won't make a big dent overall.
2. Are we on the verge of a "Trumpcession"? Wall Street exec Jeffrey Solomon is part of a small but growing group of forecasters using the dreaded R-word: recession. In an interview with CNBC, Solomon said a trade war could impact supply chains and prompt business leaders to pump the brakes on dealmaking. Some signs already point to an economic slowdown, and Solomon isn't alone in waving the red flag.
3. Brevan Howard is telling investors the "true risk" is not getting in on crypto. For years, institutions have kept their distance from digital assets. Brevan Howard's CEO told BI the tipping point for institutional investors is on the horizon, thanks to the boost provided by President Trump and crypto czar David Sacks. The firm, whose digital assets unit was up more than 52% in 2024, wants to be the go-to place for crypto-curious institutions.
3 things in tech
Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
1. Meta keeps "block" lists of ex-employees. Hiring managers at Meta sometimes pursue laid-off workers for rehire. They express interest, set up a screening call — and then ghost. That's because some ex-employees are on lists that deem them "ineligible for rehire," even if they have a written track record of exceeding managers' expectations. BI's story elicited a reaction from former Google HR chief Laszlo Bock.
2. Google Search is going AI Mode. The tech giant said it plans to test a new "AI Mode" feature for Search that aims to answer users' queries with "a wider and more diverse" set of AI-powered results. Instead of AI Overviews, which respond to queries with a direct answer at the top of the results page, the new AI Mode takes things a step further by generating an entire page.
3. Big events for big ratings. TV networks have been struggling with maintaining their audiences for years. But BI's Peter Kafka picked up on a pattern to get more eyes: streaming must-watch live sports and awards shows. The most recent Oscars, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics got bumps in viewers, and streaming was part of their equation.
3 things in business
Michelle Rohn for BI
1. Meet the PR pitbull adored by Sam Altman and Bari Weiss. Lulu Cheng Meservey is one of Silicon Valley's most sought-after communications gurus, known for her unusually aggressive "going direct" strategy. Less enchanted are her PR peers, who aren't sold on her style of bucking convention, tweeting madly, and playing offense with the press. Still, Cheng Meservey won the admiration of startup founders by showing them how she thinks.
2. A new DOGE staffer was connected to a fertility clinic and has ties to the pronatalist movement. Miles Collins, whose association with DOGE was first reported by BI, is a startup founder who employees say has been working at the Department of Labor. Collins was connected to a California fertility clinic that's now facing lawsuits accusing it of mistreating employees, although the company has denied wrongdoing. Collins is also the brother of a prominent pronatalist, a movement that Elon Musk has also spoken in favor of.
3. A tariff breather for car companies. President Donald Trump is giving the Big Three automakers — Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors — a one-month pause on his recent tariffs to avoid an "economic disadvantage." But there won't be another break when Trump's second round of trade-related tariffs takes effect on April 2, and additional tariffs on steel and aluminum are coming this month.
In other news
A once-hot startup got a $1.5 billion loan. More than $500 million went to a high school dropout's 'sham' hedge fund, judge rules.
The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.
Ta'Niya Latson learned to play tough in pickup games on Army bases in Hawaii. Stops in Atlanta and Miami helped her hone her game. Now she leads the nation in scoring and is taking FSU into the postseason.
From selfies, mirrors, group photos, or social media—we're constantly surrounded by our appearance. But perhaps we weren't supposed to see ourselves this much.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/willie-geist-exclusive-071423-1-a5f4fefe42bf45efbfd23ae0c9c0a7c6.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/the-great-gatsby-theater-4-022525-725d04167d0740adb3b35ea0fe622482.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Jason-Kelce-Kylie-Kelce-Chris-Stapleton-Performance-020725-tout-3b6ba8662c2843f38d7a9817347f3d6c.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Kendall-Jenner-Margot-Robbie-Reese-Witherspoon-021524-74769060e4b845de9d5e627e3c1a25ef.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/kendal-rugby-club-cumbria-030625-1-74140370b7c84a3b8157ecbbc8aeaea1.jpg)
