Riley-Tillman noted that the larger University of Washington in Seattle faced research cuts of $100 million to $200 million per year.
Washington State University, located in Pullman, is the state’s land-grant research university. The board was told that about 2,000 WSU employees receive some federal grant funds, and more than half of those are entirely supported by grants.
Riley-Tillman said that even temporarily halting grants could impede research for years, and that the school must set priorities.
“We need to be really aggressive over the course of the next six months deciding exactly what we’re going to maintain going forward, and frankly, what we’re not,” he said.
The Trump administration is seeking both a freeze on federal grants and to limit grant funding for indirect research costs. These actions have been temporarily halted by federal courts, but universities across the country are planning for fewer federal grants going forward.
“The chaos that’s coming out of Washington, D.C., is just causing all kinds of challenges for public and private higher education in the United States,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said at Monday’s meeting, which was streamed on YouTube.
Regent Brett Blankenship said Republican elected officials must oppose these cuts, because Democrats will not have influence with the Trump administration.
“We need to be able to talk to our Republican friends. It has to come from them,” Blankenship said. “It’s got to be brave Republicans that want to act in the public interest.”
Blankenship, a wheat farmer from Washtucna, Adams County, called the research cuts “a clown show.”
He also noted that many farmers are Republicans and don’t necessarily worry about cuts to federal agriculture programs.
“They need to know this is hurting them,” Blankenship said.
WSU Vice President for Research Kim Christen said WSU currently has 11 federal awards under stop-work orders, seven of which come from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). An additional $123,000 from the State Department also remains frozen.
The university said the majority of its federal grants have resumed since federal courts blocked implementation of the grant freeze. But should the freeze return, WSU estimates grants from 23 federal agencies could be impacted. That amounts to over $231 million worth of grants that fully support 1,130 WSU employees and partially support another 882 workers.
The federal grant freeze was intended to eliminate programs supporting “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives. Washington State remains in compliance with existing anti-discrimination laws, Christen said.
While the freeze on federal grants has gotten the most attention, another federal directive could be more disruptive, Christen said.
The National Institutes of Health issued a directive Feb. 6 to retroactively cap all grant-indirect rates at 15%.
When researchers receive a federal grant, an additional amount is set aside to pay for costs related to building maintenance, equipment and other administrative costs. These funds cover costs incurred because of the research but do not directly relate to the research itself.
Previously, each university negotiated with the federal government over the indirect reimbursement rate. The 15% cap would be much lower than the rates most universities have negotiated. According to Christen, WSU currently has an indirect negotiated rate of up to 53% for on-campus research.
The NIH directive was halted temporarily by a federal court last week. Had it been allowed to go into effect, WSU estimates the university would have lost $5 million in federal funding in 2025 alone.
Washington State University conducts research in areas including food security and sustainable agriculture, public health, medicine, environmental sciences, robotics, energy futures and many other fields.
