Sept 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to bring a major part of national funding for health research under the control of his political appointees, Politico reported on Saturday.

Trump has directed his budget director, Russ Vought, to draft an executive order to create a board that would decide which grants would be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the news outlet said, citing two administration officials familiar with the meeting. 

The board would include NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and would be required to reach unanimous decisions on grant awards, the report said. 

The proposed arrangement would give Vought a direct role in determining how the health research agency distributes its congressionally-appropriated money, the report added. 

The Office of Management and Budget, the White House and the Health and Human Services Department that oversees the NIH did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. 

The reported move comes amid mounting criticism of the US government’s research funding cuts, undertaken last year to target federal spending at major universities, resulting in the freezing or cancellation of grants at numerous institutions.

The Trump administration says these cuts are necessary to ensure the government funds only solid science and to reverse years of misguided priorities.  

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)