DoD Grilled About Overlooking Losses on Research Cost Rate Caps

A federal judge pressed a DOJ lawyer about why the Defense Department would sign off on capping indirect cost rates for government-funded research, when multiple courts had blocked identical efforts in other areas of government.

Judge Brian E. Murphy posed the question during a hearing Thursday on academic groups and universities’ request to permanently block the cap, which the court had put on hold while the litigation advanced.

The administrative record in the case included similar policies rolled out by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health but failed to address that courts had placed those on ...