BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Trump Administration announced budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health on Friday, and Senator Ed Markey has been openly against them.

The cut plans were centered on cutting down on research funding, which will directly impact institutions like MIT and Harvard.

Markey told WBZ NewsRadio that the cuts are illegal under “…the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2024, which prohibits the administration from making changes to facilities and administrative costs.”

He also made it clear how important this funding is for not only Massachusetts but the country and the entire world.

“This funding is the lifeblood of Massachusetts’ innovation economy,” Markey said. “It creates jobs, but it fuels the engine for delivering lifesaving care and treatment and cures across the country and across the planet.”

He also said he felt Elon Musk and President Trump were directly attacking Massachusetts and were using said funds for their own gain.

“Massachusetts is in the crosshairs of Musk and Trump because we are the national leaders on medical research and on education and on environmental protections,” Markey said. “The reason musk and trump are looting the money out of NIH and the Department of Education and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act is because they need hundreds of billions of dollars for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.”

Harvard released a statement, credited to school president Alan Garber, saying that the Vice Provost for Research John Shaw has outlined specific measure on how the university will monitor the changes and provide guidance to the school.

More broadly, they also mentioned just how important funding for research is for the medical world and that they will continue to support and advocate for research, as they feel the country is strengthened from it.

People like Emma were concerned about the impact this will have on the medical world.

“I work in research, I went to school in the area, hoping to go into the medical field, so it’s definitely going to threaten a lot of our health care system and research is an integral part of that,” she said.

Even with this potential threat looming, Emma still had a positive message to share.

“You know, we have to stay positive,” she said. “You’ve got to believe out there that there are some people on both sides of the political spectrum that still believe that science and research is important.”

Olivia had a more straightforward be less optimistic tone.

“Cutting it short…it’s disappointing,” she said.

Fred was someone else that had an optimistic slant on things, but from the perspective of the cuts not happening at all.

“Simply put, I think the courts will put a stop to this. It’s just not constitutional to take something that Congress has said must happen and then the President to say it won’t,” Fred said. “If it does go into effect, it will be bad, but people are getting very hyper about things that might happen, and simply put I think courts will put a stop to this.”

NIH shared a graphic on X that emphasized the massive drop in funds that will hit many research institutions after the budget cuts are put into effect.

The Appropriations Committee Democrats of the House of Representatives put out a press release on Saturday discussing the budget cuts and how the Trump Administration is breaking the legal statute that Markey mentioned.

The article included remarks from Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro.

“Based on this legal statute, which is clear and unequivocal, Musk and the Trump Administration are prohibited from implementing its new policy to cut funding for biomedical research that was approved by Congress. It is my expectation that a federal judge will block the Administration’s most recent illegal action,” DeLauro said. “President Trump is taking an axe to our efforts to find cures to diseases and disorders that are tearing apart families across the country. President Trump and Elon Musk’s proposal to cut billions of dollars for research institutions will cost lives and put the United States on a path to decline. They must immediately reverse this unlawful policy.”

WBZ NewsRadio’s James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.