Fox News has barely covered the Trump administration efforts to slash funding at the National Institutes of Health. The network has devoted less than three minutes of coverage to the administration's move to cap indirect funding included in research grants, which would affect research institutions across the country.

President Donald Trump has set his sights on the NIH, targeting federal spending on medical research. This latest move imposes a 15% cap on indirect funding for research projects, which will slash funding for essential medical infrastructure like lab maintenance, utilities, and administrative support. The new policy, announced on February 7, has sparked widespread backlash from scientists, lawmakers, and medical organizations.

Universities reliant on NIH funding could lose billions, with deep red states alone estimated to suffer $1.1 billion in losses. Dismantling this system will undermine the nation’s research capacity, delay treatments and cures, and cede leadership in science to global competitors.

The Association of American Medical Colleges explains:

Make no mistake. This announcement will mean less research. Lights in labs nationwide will literally go out. Researchers and staff will lose their jobs. 

As a result, Americans will have to wait longer for cures and our country will cede scientific breakthroughs to foreign competitors. These are real consequences – slower scientific progress, longer waits for cures, fewer jobs.

Despite the serious ramifications of funding caps, from February 7, when a cap on indirect funding for research grants distributed by NIH was announced, through 2 p.m. on February 11, Fox News covered the story for only 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Of that, about 50 seconds came from Jessica Tarlov, the left-leaning co-host on The Five, who described the imminent harm that will be caused as a result of the blanket cuts.

Twenty-two states filed a lawsuit against the administration over the policy, arguing it violates federal law and threatens groundbreaking research efforts. A federal judge temporarily blocked the cuts on February 10.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for either of the terms “NIH” or “National Institutes of Health” or any of the terms “health,” “research,” or “agency” within close proximity to any of the terms “national,” “overhead,” “indirect,” or “15” or any variation of the terms “fund,” “grant,” “institute,” “spend,” or “cost” from February 7, 2025, when a cap on indirect funding for research grants distributed by NIH was announced, through 2 p.m on February 11.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the announcement that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to cap funding for indirect costs was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of cap on indirect costs. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the cap with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the cap on indirect costs without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the cap on indirect costs scheduled to air later in the broadcast.