Slashing indirect-cost funding to 15 percent would mean that “work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the attorneys general wrote.

The Maine Republican, the Senate’s top appropriator, said she has HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s commitment to “re-examine” the cuts.

The National Institutes of Health says the cuts will save more than $4 billion a year, but critics say it puts potentially lifesaving research in jeopardy.

UW-Madison said the change to NIH funding, which is its largest source of federal support, will delay its ability to conduct ...