Funding for the maintenance and repair of institutional and commercial facilities is a precious resource, and any disruption — or potential disruption — to the flow of dollars for such projects is a cause for concern among maintenance and engineering managers. The issue is playing out on a national stage as research universities and medical centers fight to retain critical federal funding now in the crosshairs of the White House.
These institutions received at least a temporary reprieve after a U.S. judge recently extended an order blocking a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal spending by pausing grants, loans and other financial support, according to Reuters. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington extended an earlier order she issued that had temporarily blocked the funding freeze while she considered whether to issue a longer-term injunction.
The new National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of their research efforts. Universities and medical centers use these expenses in part to pay for maintenance and repairs of their research facilities. The White House wants to cut what the NIH covers in indirect costs for its grants from 53 percent to 15 percent. Here is a sample of the impact the funding freeze would have on facilities:
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.?
