NIH ends dreaded weekly bullet-point email mandate.
The rollback of the Trump-era requirement—and the potential reversal of other disruptive policies—is welcome news to a beleaguered staff.
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Leadership at the NIH informed employees that they no longer have to submit a five-bullet-point summary of what they accomplished each week. The news was conveyed in an email to NIH staff and shared with Inside Medicine.
The weekly exercise, instituted by DOGE after an Elon Musk tweet in February, has been widely unpopular across HHS. Most felt the make-work was a waste of time, an insult to their professionalism, and an ironic exercise in inefficiency. Worse, many felt that the requirement was an infantilizing and insidious form of harassment—part of a poorly conceived and misguided campaign to drive dedicated federal employees to resign or retire by making life in government just a little bit more unpleasant.
It has never been clear what the administration did with these emails, but it appears they often weren’t getting read. “I know a couple weeks ago the box that we send them to was full,” a CDC employee told me. “I always request a delivery receipt and a read receipt, and I have never gotten either.” (The policy ending the required weekly submissions has not yet reached the CDC, but it would clearly be welcome news there, too.)
In addition, NIH leadership informed employees of two other signs that some logistical nightmares implemented by the Trump administration will soon be ending, though some complications have arisen and some walkbacks have already occurred. Initially, staffers were told that credit cards for purchasing were being restored to full capacity, meaning that normal business-related transactions by NIH employees would once again be possible. (Prior to this, employees had lost the ability to make even routine transactions necessary for normal operations without permission. That meant that everything from office supplies to crucial materials necessary to keep scientific research going was either impossible to obtain, or required bureaucratic begging, leading to delays.) However, follow-up emails, also shared with Inside Medicine, indicated that details were still being worked out, meaning that, for now, the administrative hurdles to purchase even the most basic materials continues to require burdensome added steps, prolonged waiting, and arbitrary limitations. For example, since shortly after President Trump took office, requests for only up to five “mission critical” purchases per day have been permitted per NIH building (buildings which often house multiple laboratories), but not six. And what if six mission critical purchases are needed to sustain crucial research funded by taxpayers? Unclear. Did I mention all of this was ludicrous?
Finally, the ban on official business travel at the NIH has been lifted, reverting back to the normal procedures in place before the new administration ground things to a halt. That said, some eagerly awaited business travel for participation in highly technical scientific meetings is apparently not happening yet. Moreover, Reuters reported earlier that NIH scientists were recently barred from attending conferences at their own expense and during time off. (Yes, government scientists do this because they actually believe in their work that much.)
Assuming they go forward, today’s moves are sure to be widely seen as welcome developments at the NIH, and the internal email specifically thanked new NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Matthew Memoli (who is now the principal deputy director at the agency after serving as Acting Director until April 1).
The larger question is whether the Trump administration will begin to meddle with the specifics and relative independence of intramural research at the NIH. If so, procedural improvements in NIH work condition headaches initiated by the Trump administration will be mere afterthoughts.
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Thank you and please send a HUGE thank you to all the dedicated workers at the NIH and CDC! There are people who are most grateful for their efforts every day!
Thank goodness! Finally, a small break! Resistance & non- cooperation works!