DOGE cuts millions in funds targeted to HIV research at Florida universities
About $1.7 billion of those funds had already been distributed, but $680 million had yet to be dispersed to state agencies and universities before the federal government began slashing grants under President Donald Trump's "Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending" memo.
And almost one-third of the number of awards, about $42 million in grants with almost $17 million in terminated funds, are explicitly for HIV research. Florida has the third highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Those working to end the HIV epidemic say this cut in funding will have a "devastating impact."
A medical assistant tests blood drawn from a patient on National HIV Testing Day at a Planned Parenthood health center on June 27, 2017 in Miami, Florida.
"These are funds that we count on," said Rachel Klein, deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute. "We are so close to achieving an end to the epidemic, but it requires an investment in order to make that happen.'
Data from the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) system, which tracks obligated grant funds from the 12 divisions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shows approximately $2.49 billion in Florida grants that were shut down by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in March and April of this year.
Other than HIV prevention, the awards included funds for infectious disease control and prevention, childhood vaccines and immunizations, LGBTQ-related medical research and mental health. Some of the funds, like those allocated for childhood vaccines, were part of the American Rescue Plan, the 2021 economic stimulus bill passed by Congress in 2021 and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The recipients of the grants to combat HIV were all Florida universities: Florida State University, Florida International University, and both the University of Miami's medical school and Coral Gables campus. All funds were issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Florida Department of Health, and FSU, FIU and the University of Miami's medical school did not respond to a request for comment.
Tim Purcell and Doug Degenhardt with the North Florida chapter of the AIDS Memorial Quilt hang a banner on one of the balconies of Jacksonville's City Hall building atrium ahead of Friday's World AIDS Day ceremony. The City of Jacksonville commemorated World AIDS Day with a quilt ceremony put on by the Northeast Florida chapter of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and attended by Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan who presented the 2023 City of Jacksonville Proclamation, officially designating December 1 as World AIDS Day in Jacksonville Friday morning in the atrium of City Hall. December 1, 2023.
The biggest chunk of unspent money was about $15 million for the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS interventions (ATN) at the Scientific Leadership Center at FSU.
In a LinkedIn post, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, the director of the university's Institute on Digital Health and Innovation, wrote that the termination letter said 'research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness."
Hightow-Weidman argued the program has allowed for the invention of life-saving treatments and HIV prevention medication like PrEP.
"The ATN is not a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiative and does not use arbitrary categories for our research," Hightow-Weidman said. "The ATN responds directly to disease burden, healthcare gaps, and population-level health threats using epidemiological data from all adolescents and young adults in the U.S."
Florida's own version of DOGE is also reviewing the state's universities and their grants. In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis said over a one-year term, the state will attempt to sunset 70 state boards and commissions, cut 900 positions, require universities to undergo independent reviews and audits and look into local government expenditures.
In late March and early April, the governor's office sent letters to universities, asking them to provide information about awarded grants and their research purposes and staffing. That data was due April 30.
On May 5, Florida's DOGE announced it discovered a grant at the University of West Florida that has used over $800,000 in federal funding from the National Science Foundation entitled "Educating Science and Mathematics Majors to Teach with Social Justice Models in High-Needs Schools."
In a social media post, the agency alleged the funding aimed to" train math and science teachers on how to promote social justice and 'cultural responsiveness' in their classrooms."
"No Florida college or university should be focused on social justice or woke ideology over classical education," wrote DeSantis in a post on X.
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DOGE cuts millions in funds for HIV research at Florida universities
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