When a new presidential administration comes in, it is responsible for filling around 4,000 jobs sprinkled across the federal government’s vast bureaucracy. These political appointees help carry out the president’s agenda, and, at least in theory, make government agencies responsive to elected officials.
Some of these roles—the secretary of state, for example—are well-known. Others, such as the deputy assistant secretary for textiles, consumer goods, materials, critical minerals & metals industry & analysis, are more obscure.
Historically, science agencies like NASA or the National Institutes of Health tend to have fewer political appointees than many other parts of the federal government. Sometimes, very senior roles—with authority over billions of dollars of spending, and the power to shape entire fields of research—are filled without any direct input from the White House or Congress. The arrangement reflects a long-running argument that scientists should oversee the work of funding and conducting research with very little interference from political leaders.
Since the early 2000s, according to federal employment records, NIH, the country’s premier biomedical research agency, has usually had just a few political appointees within its workforce. (As of November 2025, that workforce numbered around 17,500 people, after significant cuts.) Staff scientists and external experts played a key role in selecting the directors of the 27 institutes and centers that make up NIH. That left the selection of people for powerful positions largely outside of direct White House oversight.
What is the future of that status quo under the Trump administration?
Those questions have recently swirled at NIH. The arrival of political appointees in the kinds of positions previously held by civil servants, and apparent changes to hiring practices for other key positions, have raised concerns among current and former officials about a new era of politicization.
For decades, NIH has enjoyed strong bipartisan support. But conservative lawmakers have periodically raised questions about some of the agency’s spending, and according to one 2014 survey, the agency is perceived by federal executives as being a progressive place. (Since the early 2000s, some data suggests, US scientists as a whole have grown considerably more liberal relative to the general population.)