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A federal judge has paused the Trump administration's order to make deep cuts to health research, but that pause is temporary. Stephan Bisaha of the Gulf States Newsroom reports on the potential economic fallout that the cuts could cause in Birmingham, Alabama. It's a community that relies in part on that research funding. And a quick note - the University of Alabama at Birmingham oversees the Gulf States Newsroom, but the news and business departments operate independently.
STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: There's this building going up in downtown Birmingham, and it's going to be for biomedical research. And the reason it's getting built can actually be seen on this banner right across the street from it. It says, top 1% for research funding, National Institutes of Health. The University of Alabama at Birmingham gets hundreds of millions of dollars from the NIH. Research that goes into diabetes and strokes and cancer happen in buildings like this one going up right now across the city.
RANDALL WOODFIN: What's happened over the years, with billions of dollars in research, has literally saved lives.
BISAHA: That's Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. And UAB says the same thing - that these potential cuts to the NIH would slow research into everything, from cancer to Alzheimer's to heart disease. And along with the research, Woodfin worries about Birmingham's economy, too, if UAB loses funding.
WOODFIN: Please remember, this is not just Birmingham's largest employer, this is the state of Alabama's largest employer.
BISAHA: On Monday, a federal judge put a pause on the NIH cuts, which is exactly what Woodfin wants to see.
WOODFIN: I'm also waiting - or hoping that our U.S. senators engage and protect Alabamians.
BISAHA: Alabama Senator Katie Britt, a Republican, said in an emailed statement she's all for cutting administrative bloat, but wants to work with the Trump administration to do it in a way that doesn't hinder important research. The NIH said in the memo announcing these cuts that they're necessary because it's paying universities a lot more than private grant providers do for indirect costs, like facilities and administration work.
Sara Helms McCarty is an economist at Samford University, located in one of Birmingham's suburbs. She says it's difficult to know exactly what these cuts would do to the city and state's economies, but it would definitely mean a loss of jobs.
SARA HELMS MCCARTY: I have friends who work in the labs at UAB, and they're very concerned. They're like, yeah, I'm dusting off my resume because I don't know what this means for me.
BISAHA: Birmingham's reliance on biomedical research came after the steel industry it was built on collapsed in the '70s and '80s. Last year, UAB received about $330 million from the NIH, according to the agency's website. About a quarter of that covers administrative costs, and the tens of millions of dollars that could be lost here will be felt far beyond UAB's labs.
MCCARTY: UAB and the biomedical research that happens there is an essential piece of our economy, and that is something that, if it is disrupted, it will greatly impact what we see in our state and in our city. It will affect businesses, restaurants, real estate - all of it.
BISAHA: Trump ran on the promise of both clearing out federal waste and improving the economy. And in this case, these aggressive moves to cut spending could hurt the economy of a state that's consistently voted for Trump.
For NPR News, I'm Stephan Bisaha, in Birmingham, Alabama. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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