Trump Medical Research Cuts Put Top Appropriator in Tough Spot
Read the full article in Bloomberg Government
Even for a budget hawk like Rep. Tom Cole, cutting biomedical research to the bone could be a hard pill to swallow. “I think long term the research saves lives and saves money,” he said. “And there’s no doubt about that.”
But the House Appropriations Committee chairman is now caught between the Trump administration’s goal to slash nearly $18 billion at the National Institutes of Health—America’s premier public health research agency—and advocacy groups who warn such a move would be devastating for patients and the future of medical science.
The White House in its recent budget blueprint decried the agency’s approach to research and outlined plans for structural changes that would consolidate some programs while eliminating others. “NIH has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health,” the Trump administrations aid in the document. The budget request maintains $27 billion for research at NIH.
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Ellie Dehoney, senior vice president of policy and advocacy for Research!America, said she is confident in Cole and the leaders of the appropriations committees to do what they’ve done for years. “They look at the president’s budget and then they do what’s in the best interest of the American public for–when it comes to medical progress,” she said.
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