Reporting and sources reveal leadership changes at the National Endowment for the Humanities accompanied by personnel removals and a reworking of grant priorities that critics say favors handpicked projects. Congressional and sector observers say the agency’s grant review procedures have been altered, and that several established review processes and scholars were sidelined. Democrats and humanities advocates warn the moves threaten peer-review norms that underpin federal humanities funding and could redirect support toward projects aligned with political priorities. University humanities departments and nonprofit grantees face increased uncertainty about sustained federal backing for research and public-history programming.