Department of Veterans Affairs weighs keeping Harvard contracts focused on veteran suicides, cancer screening

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — A Harvard Medical School professor who works with the Veterans Affairs Department to assess veterans’ risk of suicide hopes his project can survive a fierce internal debate at the department on whether to cancel research contracts with Harvard.

VA and the Pentagon have the level of access to data on millions of veterans and their behavioral history that is needed to truly understand their risk of suicide and how to prevent it, said Dr. Ronald Kessler, a renowned psychiatric epidemiologist.

“It’s been fantastic,” Kessler told CNN of working with the VA on the project, which helps clinicians decide if suicidal veterans treated in emergency rooms should be hospitalized or discharged.

But Kessler’s project is one of multiple “critical” contracts with Harvard that, according to internal VA emails reviewed by CNN, department officials have slated for cancelation. Some VA officials have pleaded with their leadership not to cancel the contracts. More veterans could die if Kessler’s project is axed, one official warned.

More than 6,400 veterans died by suicide in 2022, according to VA data, the most recent available.

VA officials like John Figueroa, a longtime health industry executive who is now a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins, have pushed to sharply scrutinize VA contracts with an eye toward work that the government could perform on its own rather than outsource, sources briefed on the matter said. The VA has planned to cut tens of thousands of employees as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut costs and remake the federal bureaucracy. Collins has repeatedly pledged that veterans’ health care would not be affected by the cuts.

The internal debate around contracts began this month when department officials informed contracting officers that VA would be canceling or scaling back several contracts with Harvard. Contracting officers were asked to justify the contracts on the chopping block, sources briefed on the matter said.

The wrangling at VA comes after the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard over a list of grievances that the administration has with America’s oldest university, from allegedly insufficient efforts to combat antisemitism to Harvard’s admissions process.

Two other contracts facing termination that VA employees have lobbied to keep are for research related to cancer treatment for veterans, according to the emails. One of those contracts would support research for clinical trials, including screening for prostate cancer. Each year, hundreds of thousands of veterans seek treatment for cancer through VA or through community clinics sponsored by the department.

The New York Times first reported on the internal VA discussions.

It’s unclear if the Departments Veterans Affairs officials has officially terminated all the contracts that, the emails show, were slated to be cut. Several of Harvard’s VA contracts and grants have either been terminated or are under consideration for cancellation, according to a source familiar with the situation.

“VA contracts with Harvard for research are under review with an eye toward ensuring the projects best support the Trump Administration’s Veterans-first agenda,” Veterans Affairs spokesperson Peter Kasperowicz said in an email. “VA contracts with Harvard related to periodicals and publications have been terminated as these services will easily be found elsewhere.”

“American Veterans have sacrificed to protect our nation, and we have a moral obligation to protect their health in return,” Dr. Nancy Keating, professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. “Sustained federal funding for research into Veterans’ health is essential to understanding and addressing their unique medical needs — from cancer to environmental exposures, to mental health and risk for suicide. Such research can also help uncover insights that can improve care for all Americans.

The suicide risk contract has not been officially terminated, according to the source familiar. Kessler, the Harvard professor and epidemiologist, said he has checked in regularly with his team in recent days and “as far as I can tell,” his contracts haven’t been canceled.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “Tomorrow, they might divorce me.”

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