From: Joichi Ito <1 To: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacationggmail.com> Subject: Fwd: A message on the Trump Administration Proposal on Indirect Costs Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2017 12:05:21 +0000 Inline-Images: dkkolnphoaemodnh.png FYI Begin forwarded message: From: "Maria T. Zuber" <[email protected]> Subject: A message on the Trump Administration Proposal on Indirect Costs Date: July 6, 2017 at 12:27:05 PM EDT To: [email protected] Cc: Suzanne Pettit <[email protected]> Paul Schierenbeck <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Header-Martin-A-Schmidt-and-Maria-T-Zuber.png Dear colleagues, We are writing to alert you to an issue that threatens all of MIT's federally funded research activities but that is often underappreciated. We're referring to the Trump Administration's proposal to put a 10 percent cap on indirect cost reimbursements to universities by the National Institutes of Health — an idea that is already beginning to be talked about for other federal agencies as well. An article explaining indirect costs and why they are important to MIT can be found in the most recent Faculty Newsletter: http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/295/zuber.html. The Administration's proposed cuts to federal R&D agency budgets have rightly been met with consternation on campus. The indirect cost cap proposal is actually an even graver danger because it is easier for the government to institute, and it would do far-reaching damage that is harder to reverse. We need faculty and research staff to understand the devastating effects that capping indirect cost would cause to MIT and other research institutions. The indirect cost cap is easier to implement than a cut to the budget because the Administration can act unilaterally without Congressional approval. The proposed agency budget cuts are already running into strong headwinds on both sides of the aisle in Congress. and they cannot move forward without 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. The indirect cost cap, by contrast, does