Durbin Meets With Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Nominee For NIH Director
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Co-Chair of the Senate NIH Caucus, today met with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During the meeting, Durbin questioned Dr. Bhattacharya about President Trump and Elon Musk’s illegal funding cuts at NIH. President Trump and Musk are attempting to cap “indirect costs” at 15 percent for lab capacity, which would be devastating for new cures that patients desperately seek. Durbin also pressed Dr. Bhattacharya about the reported indiscriminate firing of 1,200 NIH workers.
“All the progress we have made at NIH and all the progress we hope to make is in danger because of Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Durbin. “They are carrying out an unprecedented and devastating campaign to cut research funding for cancers, ALS, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and infectious diseases. During today’s meeting, I asked Dr. Bhattacharya if he would reverse the damage that has already been done at NIH and if he would stand up to the President and Mr. Musk—lives depend on it. To achieve breakthroughs for patients, NIH requires a director with a vision to defend and strengthen our world-class medical research.”
Yesterday, Durbin 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. U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) rejected Durbin’s UC request.
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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