From reducing NIH funding to slashing USAID's food program to imposing new tariffs, GOP lawmakers are beginning to speak out — carefully — against some of Trump's actions.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., recently pushed back on the administration’s funding reductions under the National Institutes of Health. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a major recipient of that money, which has helped make it the state’s largest employer.

Britt told AL.com that “a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the cap on indirect costs under NIH grants was “poorly conceived” and would impose “arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research at our Maine institutions.”

And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., warned that universities that lack “big endowments” would lose out the most due to the NIH cuts.

“It’ll be very difficult for them to conduct this research. And so, of course, I want people in Louisiana to benefit from research dollars, and for it to not all go to Massachusetts and California,” Cassidy said.

Among the top 20 states that take more money from the federal government than they sent in tax payments, 13 are solidly red states that voted for Trump in the last three elections, according to an analysis by the Rockefeller Institute of Government of the fiscal 2024 budget.

Meanwhile, the top five states (and nine of the top 10) that send more money to the Treasury Department than they receive voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections.