The White House budget called for slashing NIH by $18 billion, a decrease of 40 percent. Instead, the committee advanced the bill on a 26-3 vote, delivering a bipartisan rebuke of the administration’s efforts to defund medical research.
The bill includes a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease research, a $150 million increase for cancer research and a $30 million increase for the Office of Research on Women’s Health.
While funding for other parts of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was left the same, it was still a far cry from the major cuts put forward by the White House.
“To the scientists wondering if there will even be an NIH by the end of this administration: this committee’s resounding message is yes,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee’s vice chair.
The panel also did not include a massive HHS reorganization that would have created a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) to focus on chronic disease prevention.
The White House budget request called for the new AHA agency to absorb other existing agencies and programs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the entire Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The administration proposed giving the AHA agency a budget of $20 billion. But lawmakers on Thursday never mentioned it.
An Appropriations Committee spokesperson told The Hill that HHS never sent Congress the required formal reorganization plan or allow for six months of consideration.
