Durbin Highlights Importance Of NIH Funding To Red States & Urges Republicans Senators To Stand Up For Medical Research
Durbin: I am pleading with my Republican colleagues: may your choices reflect your hope for new cures and treatments for patients, not your fears about what will happen if you cross Donald Trump
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor slamming the Trump Administration for its attempts to dismantle the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the harmful impacts it will have on medical research across the country, including in red states. Durbin began his remarks by highlighting the importance of NIH funding to patients nationwide.
Durbin said, “There is certainty in funding medical research. Certainty in knowing that while not all trials, experiments, and grants will result in a breakthrough—some of them will. Because of medical research, kids with ear infections or pneumonia can find relief in antibiotics; because of medical research, we have vaccines that have saved tens of millions of lives worldwide; because of medical research, we have anesthesia that allows patients to safely undergo major surgeries; because of medical research, people are surviving heart attacks, beating cancer, living with HIV/AIDS, receiving organ donations, surviving drug overdoses, and living longer. But there is so much more to be done—so many people still hoping and praying for more.”
“And you know who offers them that hope? The National Institutes of Health—our nation’s premier biomedical research agency. It is considered the gold standard around the world. For decades, NIH has been a bipartisan success story—with Congress prioritizing the funding of promising, life-saving medical research in all 50 states—creating and supporting good-paying jobs in red, blue, and purple states, and offering real hope to families desperate for it,” Durbin continued.
Durbin then slammed President Trump, Elon Musk, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for their actions to dismantle NIH and medical research. In addition to cutting medical research around the country, they have terminated clinical trials in process, placed gag orders on researchers, and fired more than a thousand NIH employees.
“Instead of bolstering medical research, they are breaking it. Instead of offering hope to patients in need, unfortunately they are crushing it. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and RFK Jr. are either completely oblivious to what they are doing—or they just don’t care,” Durbin continued. “But you know who isn’t oblivious? My Republican colleagues, many of whom have fought by my side to increase NIH’s budget by 60 percent over the past decade… Which is why their silence—their refusal to say anything or act in the face of President Trump’s dismantling of NIH is so devastating… If Republican Senators won’t stand up for NIH funding in their states [or] for constituents in their states, I’m going to do it.”
Durbin then highlighted how NIH cuts are affecting South Dakota—the home state of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). In 2024, South Dakota research institutions received nearly $29 million in NIH funding—which supported 453 jobs in that state. Sanford Research/University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University were among some of the top NIH-funded institutions in South Dakota. Sanford Research/USD researchers used NIH funding to support their Center for Pediatric Research, with a specific focus on training new scientists to study pediatric diseases. South Dakota State University used NIH funding to increase cervical cancer screening among Indigenous women—who face higher rates of cervical cancer prevalence and death. They also used funding to develop new, targeted therapies forcolorectal cancer that are safer and more effective than current chemotherapies.
“These researchers know that cuts to medical research mean diseases will not be cured and treatments will not be found. They know the mass, indiscriminate firings at NIH don’t just mean we are losing talent—it also means we are losing time and progress,” said Durbin.
Durbin concluded, “Nelson Mandela once said, ‘May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.’ I am pleading with my Republican colleagues: may your choices reflect your hope for new cures and treatments for patients fighting cancer, ALS, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease—not your fears about what will happen if you cross this President. Let us do what is right. Let’s come together again on a bipartisan basis for medical research… Medical research helps all people—everybody gets a helping hand. Let us do what’s right. Let’s come together and save medical research forevery single person in America who is desperate for hope.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
This year, Durbin has twice asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass a resolution he introduced with U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), as well as 21 other Senators, that would pledge support for NIH. The resolution simply said that the work of NIH should not be subject to interruption, delay, or funding disruptions in violation of the law, and it reaffirmed that the NIH workforce is essential to sustaining medical progress. The first UC request was blocked by U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and the second was blocked by U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
Durbin has long been a strong advocate for robust medical research. His legislation, the American Cures Act, would provide annual budget increases of five percent plus inflation at America’s top four biomedical research agencies: NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense Health Program, and the Veterans Medical and Prosthetics Research Program. Thanks to Durbin’s efforts to increase medical research funding, Congress has provided NIH with a 60 percent funding increase over the past decade.
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