By Katelyn Polantz and Veronica Stracqualursi

(CNN) — The Trump administration’s effort to cut back on federal funding for the National Institutes of Health for research programs at universities and medical systems has been blocked nationwide.

On Monday, lawyers representing dozens of research institutions told Judge Angel Kelley of the federal district court of Massachusetts that the change “will devastate critical public health research at universities and research institutions in the United States. Without relief from NIH’s action, these institutions’ cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt.”

Virtually the entire academic and medical communities across the country went to court seeking emergency help.

In hundreds of pages of sworn statements, more than 30 medical system research directors and university leaders describe how research funding cutbacks would devastate their work and harm patients.

One chemistry professor from the State University of New York who studies Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases wrote that the cost reduction by the NIH “will cost thousands of Americans their lives.”

A second lawsuit — helmed by prominent conservative lawyer Paul Clement and other major attorneys — on Monday from American research universities also told the court the NIH cuts would “devastate medical research.”

A third similar lawsuit filed Monday from major groups representing medical schools, pharmacy schools and hospitals had asked Kelley to expand her initial action to apply not just to states that had sued.

Kelley agreed with 22 Democrat-led states that cost cutting should be blocked temporarily.

Late Monday night, Kelley expanded the pause on the NIH cost-cutting nationwide, writing the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services and “their officers, employees, servants, agents, appointees, and successors are hereby enjoined from taking any steps to implement, apply, or enforce” the NIH cost-cutting “in any form with respect to institutions nationwide until further order is issued by this Court.”

The Trump administration had planned to significantly reduce the amount it underwrites nationally at both public and private universities for funding the overhead costs of research programs.

Under the administration’s plan, funding from the National Institutes of Health, known as indirect cost rates, would be capped at 15% from an average of more than 27%. Some research institutions, including Harvard, have rates higher than 60%, according to the NIH, which said in a post on X last week that the policy would save more than $4 billion a year.

Those rates are aimed at covering the various overhead costs — like facility costs, regulatory compliance and administrative support — that research institutions must account for to support their research.

Republicans raise concerns about research cuts

The proposed funding cuts have raised concern among some Republicans in Congress worried about the impact to the research institutions in their home states.

While she supports the administration’s efforts to trim wasteful federal spending, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, typically a reliable Trump ally, told AL.com that “a smart, targeted approach is needed” for the NIH “in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told CNN he’s been in “active conversations” with universities in his state about how the NIH’s proposed cuts could dramatically harm their research abilities, adding, “it’s an issue.”

Perhaps the strongest pushback came from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who said in a statement Monday that she opposes “the poorly conceived directive.”

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she heard from research institutions in Maine that the cuts would be “devastating, stopping vital biomedical research and leading to the loss of jobs.”

Collins said she spoke to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead HHS, that morning “to express my strong opposition to these arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research at our Maine institutions.”

Collins, who said she will support Kennedy’s nomination, claimed that he vowed to reexamine the NIH’s initiative as soon as he’s confirmed. A vote on Kennedy’s nomination is expected this week.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

CNN’s Meg Tirrell, Tierney Sneed and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.

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