The National Institutes of Health obligated $5.8 billion of FY26 extramural funding through March 20 — about 15 percent of the roughly $38 billion target the appropriation supports. The pace remains below half the typical FY rate, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges' May data brief. [1]

The paper's Monday account of the NIH grant rate below 50 percent framed the gap as bank-war-economy structural disruption applied to the research side. Tuesday's update holds that frame. Congress saved the budget — the appropriation passed — but DOGE has separately terminated more than 600 grants representing $6.9 billion to $8.2 billion in committed extramural obligations. [2] The paper carries the two-sided picture because the headline number depends on which side of the ledger one reads.

The Funding Landscape tracker, which scrapes NIH RePORTER weekly, holds the obligation-rate series. [3] AAMC's brief converts the rate into hit ratios — the share of submitted applications that win an award — and notes the historic low. On X, AAMC framed the pace as "less than half the typical FY rate" while linking the data brief.

A PI at a benchwork institution feels both ends. Submission rates rise as researchers respond to the shrinking award pool; success rates fall as the obligated dollar count stays low. What the FY26 quarterly obligation update — expected from NIH's reporting cycle — would clarify is whether the trend has accelerated or stabilized. Tuesday morning brought no update.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin