Statement by Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley on the Senate Appropriations Committee Release of FY21 Appropriations Bills
On November 10, 2020, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its 12 draft appropriations bills detailing Fiscal Year 2021 funding levels, signaling a starting point for negotiations with their House counterparts. The bills include funding for agencies which lead the government’s role in medical, public health, and other health research. We are pleased to see increased funding for the NIH and a number of other health and research agencies. We look forward to continuing to work with Senate and House Committee leadership as they work towards reaching agreement on funding for the many critical priorities facing our nation during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the many other health threats continuing to put patients and their families at risk.
It is also critical that Members of Congress work toward providing at least $26 billion in supplemental funding to reboot and restart research sidelined or halted because of the pandemic. The investments we make in health, medical, and scientific research today are a decisive factor in our management of, and preparedness for, current and future threats.
We encourage the Senate and House to work together without delay to fund the many challenges ahead of us so we can build our nation’s post-COVID future with robust investments in NIH, CDC, AHRQ, FDA, and NSF.