Voters Oppose Political Control of Grant Making

Ahead of the midterm elections Nov. 3, a new poll shows that voters in some Midwestern battleground states don’t approve of the federal government’s plans to assert more political control over the federal grant-making process.

Earlier this month, United for Cures Action surveyed 1,200 registered voters in Iowa, Kansas, and Ohio, all of which Republican President Donald Trump won in 2024. According to the survey, published last week, 76 percent of voters in those states oppose the Office of Management and Budget’s proposal to overhaul the grant-approval process, including at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies that send millions in research funding to universities each year. Right now, peer reviewers at those agencies make the final decision on who is awarded a grant. But under the proposal (which advocacy groups, including United for Cures, have opposed), political appointees would have the final say on awards, which could be canceled at their discretion.

Strong voter opposition to the proposal extends across geographic and party lines. According to the poll, 77 percent of voters in Iowa and Kansas oppose, along with 75 percent in Ohio. Across all three states, 88 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents and 64 percent of Republicans oppose it.

The poll also found that 64 percent believe the federal government spends too little on medical research, while 91 percent believe that federally funded medical research has had a “great deal” or “some” impact on finding breakthrough cures and treatments.

The “bottom line,” United for Cures Action wrote in a memo about the poll, is “Voters clearly do not want increased political interference with federal grants from EITHER party.”