For generations, the National Institutes of Health has channeled billions of federal dollars into scientific discovery through a peer-review system built on the judgment of researchers themselves. Now, the White House is drafting an executive order that would place an outside panel between grant applicants and funding decisions — a move that would mark one of the most consequential shifts in federal research governance in decades. The proposal reflects a broader impulse to bring scientific spending under tighter political alignment, raising enduring questions about who should determine which q