Durbin Votes Against NIH Director Nominee, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
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, released the following statement after voting against President Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya:
“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. They are carrying out an unprecedented and devastating campaign to cut research funding for cancers, ALS, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and infectious diseases. The lifesaving work at NIH benefits patients in red and blue states—providing hope to patients, supporting jobs in every community, and cementing our scientific leadership against China.
“To achieve breakthroughs for patients, NIH needs a director who will fight back against President Trump’s misguided and dangerous proposals that threaten to delay new cures and treatments. I do not believe Dr. Bhattacharya is that person.”
Durbin met with Dr. Bhattacharya earlier this year. During the meeting, Durbin questioned Dr. Bhattacharya about President Trump and Elon Musk’s illegal funding cuts at NIH. President Trump and Musk have frozen NIH grants to researchers nationwide and 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.
Durbin 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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