The Pentagon Quietly Signs a Ten-Year Agreement Letting It Draw on the NIH’s Infectious-Disease Budget — Up to $2 Billion, Close to a Third of the Institute’s Money — and the Top Appropriations Democrats in Both Chambers Say It Was Done Behind Congress’s Back
On Thursday, September 3, 2026, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on House Appropriations, disclosed that the Department of Defense had signed an interagency agreement with the National Institutes of Health that "facilitates the transfer of funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War." The agreement runs to 2036 and names no dollar figure. People familiar with it estimated that as much as $2 billion could move out of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — close to a third of an institute whose annual budget is roughly $7 billion, and the money Congress appropriated for research on HIV, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and Ebola. The stated purpose is "the advanced development of medical countermeasures against pandemic influenza, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, and emerging infectious diseases." The Pentagon posted a redacted copy of the agreement on September 4. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, and DeLauro both demanded the agreement be terminated outright, and both tied it to the Pentagon’s cash crunch: the department is six months into the Iran war, the Navy has been raiding its own payroll accounts, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s $350 billion reconciliation request has gone nowhere in either chamber. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya publicly defended the deal as a research partnership rather than a diversion, saying the work would be led by NIAID and would be "100% aligned with our public health mission." A White House spokesman said no money was being transferred to the Pentagon at all, calling it "a project-by-project research partnership." As of this writing no congressional Republican had publicly weighed in.
“NIH funds should be used to improve the health of Americans. Far from siphoning money away from research, this partnership between @NIH and @DeptofWar focuses on research projects that will drive discoveries to improve the health of American citizens and members of the military. Led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, all work will be 100% aligned with our public health mission.”