President Donald Trump directed budget director Russ Vought to draft an executive order creating a board of political appointees to decide which National Institutes of Health grants receive funding, placing billions of dollars in federal health research grants under proposed political oversight. The initiative emerged during a Friday Oval Office debate over whether NIH funding priorities conflicted with Trump’s agenda and whether the agency should cut spending further. It also represents another effort to reduce Harvard University’s funding after Congress temporarily blocked an earlier Vought plan through a stopgap funding bill this month.