Yuval Levin peers beyond the headlines in a political skirmish over federal grant funding.

A tweet from the official X account of the National Institutes of Health declared: …

… “Today the NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%, above what many major foundations allow and much lower than the 60%+ that some institutions charge the government today.” …

… The response was predictably swift and intense. Scientists and advocates accused the administration of betraying patients and surrendering America’s leading position in biotechnology and medical research. Trump allies, from Elon Musk on down, answered them by calling elite universities spoiled, corrupt, and profligate. …

… Lost in the rush on all sides to play right into one another’s crudest clichés was an opportunity to actually govern a little better. On this front, as on many others, Donald Trump’s election has created real opportunities for advancing needed change. But the new administration seems intent on squandering those opportunities because it does not see itself as responsible for the federal government. Eager to demonstrate how corrupt our institutions have become rather than to facilitate their improvement, it is opting for lawless and performative iconoclasm over the more mundane but potentially transformative work of governance.

Indirect costs in NIH grants are a perfectly reasonable target for reform. But such reform could only succeed if it takes account of the law and if it gives Congress, the NIH itself, and the community of academic researchers some room to adjust to the administration’s new demands and priorities. That’s what effective executive leadership would look like. …

… Rather than pursue this idea as a way to improve the institution they’re administering, they have chosen to pursue it as a way to attack that institution — ridiculing its existing practice and practitioners, announcing a dramatic policy change on a Friday evening that is set to take effect the following Monday, and presenting the move in a way intended to maximize surprise and invite stiff opposition.