Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say
Rep. Rosa DeLauro claims an interagency agreement could divert billions from disease research.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies in Congress
Photograph: The New Republic (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Democrats allege the Pentagon is seeking to divert billions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health.
- Rep. Rosa DeLauro said an interagency agreement could give the Defense Department access to funds for influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and Ebola research.
- DeLauro accused the Pentagon of attempting to use NIH funds to address its budget shortfalls.
- The Pentagon has not publicly commented on the allegations.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
86/100
Craft
61/100
Hype
55/100
7 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
None of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee have accused the Pentagon of attempting to redirect billions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health to cover its own budget shortfalls. According to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the committee, an interagency agreement has been signed that could grant the Defense Department access to these funds. The money in question is designated for research into influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and Ebola.
Disagreement on the agreement's details
While multiple outlets report that the Pentagon is attempting to redirect NIH biomedical research funding, the specific details of the interagency agreement are not fully detailed across all reports. The New Republic, in its full report, quotes DeLauro stating the agreement needs to be terminated immediately and that the administration must provide Congress with a full accounting of how it was developed and how much taxpayer money it is trying to transfer to the DoD. Other reports, such as those from Punchbowl News and The Hill, state that the agreement could allow the Pentagon access to billions of dollars in biomedical research funds.
Omissions in coverage
None of the left-rated or centre-rated reports printed below mention the Pentagon's alleged motivation for seeking these funds, beyond general budget shortfalls. The New Republic's full report mentions the Pentagon is running low on money because of "the record amount of taxpayer money they’ve spent in their war on Iran" and that it "needs to take from the NIH’s cup to buy more ammunition." However, no other report specifies the reason for the Pentagon's budget issues.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 4 Sept 2026, 04:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
5 rated outlets
- Left-rated reports highlighted the accusation that the Pentagon is attempting to divert funds from vital disease research. The New Republic's full report quoted Rep. Rosa DeLauro calling the effort a "secretive attempt to siphon research funds away from NIH" and "outrageous." Alternet's digest stated the Pentagon was engaged in a "Trump's 'secretive' scheme to pilfer medical research funds" and that the effort was undertaken "without notifying Congress." Raw Story's digest used the phrase "Beyond the pale" from DeLauro to describe the Pentagon's actions. Notus's digest noted DeLauro's statement that it would be "outrageous" to siphon money from disease research as the military faces a war-driven cash crunch.
Centre
2 rated outlets
- Centre-rated reports focused on the core allegation that the Pentagon sought to divert NIH funds. Punchbowl News's digest stated DeLauro said the Defense Department is trying to divert billions of dollars from the NIH to help the Pentagon's money woes. The Hill's digest reported that DeLauro criticized a newly disclosed interagency agreement that could allow the Pentagon to access billions of dollars in biomedical research funds originally allocated to the NIH.
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say?
- Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 71% are rated left, 29% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say biased?
- Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Pentagon seeks NIH funds to cover budget shortfalls, Democrats say?
- 7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What is the Pentagon accused of doing?
- Democrats, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, accuse the Pentagon of signing an interagency agreement that could allow it to divert billions of dollars intended for National Institutes of Health research into its own budget to cover shortfalls.
- Which research funds are allegedly being targeted?
- The funds in question are designated for research into influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and Ebola. Rep. DeLauro stated these funds were provided for lifesaving medical research, not for the Department of Defense.
- What is the alleged reason for the Pentagon's actions?
- According to The New Republic, the Pentagon is allegedly facing significant budget pressure due to spending on the war in Iran and needs funds to purchase ammunition. Other reports mention general budget shortfalls as the reason.
Read it at the source
7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
5- 'Beyond the pale': Pentagon caught trying to raid billions from disease research (opens Raw Story in a new tab)
Raw Story — is Raw Story biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- House Democrat Says the Pentagon Sought NIH Funds for Defense Use (opens NOTUS in a new tab)
- Exposed: Trump's 'secretive' scheme to pilfer medical research funds (opens Alternet in a new tab)
- Pentagon Is Redirecting NIH Research Funding, DeLauro Says (1) (opens bgov.com in a new tab)
- Hegseth and Co. Are Trying to Steal Other Agencies’ Funds, Dems Say (opens The New Republic in a new tab)
The New Republic — is The New Republic biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
2Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
