Two major federal research funders moved quickly to change grant review and oversight practices. The National Science Foundation issued guidance enabling program officers to rely on fewer outside reviews and substitute internal assessments to clear a backlog caused by the government shutdown and staffing shortfalls. NSF framed the move as a temporary measure to expedite awards while preserving merit review standards. Concurrently, the National Institutes of Health distributed internal guidance directing staff to use a computational text-analysis tool to screen proposals for terms deemed misaligned with agency priorities and to pause funding for submissions flagged as ‘not aligned.’ Scientists and research administrators warn these shifts could compress external review rigor and create new compliance risks for investigators seeking federal support.