$800 Milliion Haircut For Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins, the celebrated Baltimore university and research institute and member of the American Association of Universities, has had revoked $800 million in grants from the beleaguered USAID. Its response has been to lay off 247 employees in the US and 1,945 in the 44 other countries where USAID funds finance their operations. That means that the employees shown the door were making an average of $365,000 annually.

Previously, USAID grants to Columbia University, also a member of the Association of American Universities, totaling  $400 million have been clawed back, ostensibly as punishment for the school allowing students to riot over Israeli activity against Hamas in Gaza. 

In 2023 Johns Hopkins spent $3,801,585 on research and development activities, the most of any university in the country by a considerable margin. The total spent on R & D by American universities was $108,841,148. 

Statements made by the AAU:

 The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) has written to Appropriation Committee members requesting that the National Science Foundation (NSF) receive at least $9.9 billion in funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. This amount would restore NSF's funding to its FY 2023 level.

 The Coalition for Aerospace and Science (CAS) requests Congress appropriate at least $27.18 billion for NASA in fiscal Year 2026, a vital increase to maintain development of ongoing missions while initiating work on new groundbreaking endeavors.

 AAU has signed a letter from the Energy Sciences Coalition (ESC) recommending that Congress allocate $9.5 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science in FY 2026 to maintain U.S. competitiveness.

Since the general population of the US is fairly well fed, clothed and out of the rain, driving somewhat reliable automobiles and endlessly entertained, these funds aren't marked for improvement of their lot. They are being used in a strange competition with "China", whoever that is:

 "Even a temporary stoppage of critical scientific research is a self-defeating, unforced error. On the very same day that headlines announced a breakthrough indicating that China may have, at very least, caught up to the U.S. in some aspects of artificial intelligence, the federal government put on hold critical ongoing work to make U.S. scientific and technological advances. If you are racing neck-and-neck, stepping off the track for any amount of time is a gift to your competitors." AAU President Barbara Snyder, January 28, 2025.