Republicans Block Durbin-Murray Amendment To Reverse Devastating And Illegal Cuts To NIH Medical Research
SPRINGFIELD – Last night during the Senate’s vote-a-rama, Senate Republicans blocked U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) amendment that would reverse massive, arbitrary cuts to lifesaving medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk tried to make earlier this year by freezing federal grant funding and setting the maximum reimbursement rate for indirect costs to 15 percent. The amendment would have reversed the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate cuts to biomedical research and the lifesaving work supported by the NIH at research institutions across the country. Durbin spoke on his amendment on the Senate floor last night. To watch his remarks, click here.
“My Republican colleagues know as I do—that President Trump’s cuts, freezes, gag orders, and firings are devastating medical research at NIH. Since we get sick on a bipartisan basis, shouldn’t we stand together on a bipartisan basis for medical research at NIH?” Durbin said on the Senate floor.
The Trump Administration’s move to freeze federal grant funding and change the indirect costs rate are both illegal, as Congress’ bipartisan Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill prohibits modifications to NIH’s indirect costs, and Congress—not the President—has the constitutional “power of the purse” authority to determine how federally appropriated dollars are spent. Both policies are currently temporarily blocked by the courts, though there is evidence that the Trump Administration is defying court orders.
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