Hearings to examine proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2026 for the National Institutes of Health.

Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies

2025-06-10

Source: Congress.gov

Summary

This hearing examines the National Institutes of Health's fiscal year 2026 budget request, which proposes a 40% cut to NIH funding, eliminating over 2,370 active grants and halting clinical trials in critical areas such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and addiction. Committee members, including Senators Capito, Baldwin, Collins, and Murray, express deep concern over the administration's actions, which they say are undermining U.S. leadership in biomedical research and threatening public health. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, NIH Director, defends the agency’s mission and emphasizes the need to prioritize real health needs like Alzheimer's, diabetes, and maternal health. Key issues discussed include the politicization of grant decisions, the termination of research on maternal mortality and rare diseases, a proposed 15% cap on institutional overhead costs, and the urgent need to modernize research through data science and AI. Witnesses also highlight the importance of geographic equity in research funding through programs like IDEA, and stress that cutting research will harm patients and erode U.S. competitiveness abroad. The hearing concludes with a call for bipartisan action to protect and strengthen NIH's role in advancing life-saving science and treatments.

Participants

Transcript

Thank you.
Well, I think it's 10 o'clock, and I like to be prompt, and the good doctor is here, so I think it's time to start.  Thank you, Dr. Botticeira, and congratulations on your new role as director of the NIH.  Thank you for appearing before the subcommittee today to discuss how the fiscal year budget of 2026 will continue efforts from NIH to reduce illness, enhance health, continue   land-breaking or unbelievable research and lengthen the lives of all Americans.  My homestead of West Virginia, as we have talked, is faced with many complex health challenges.  I know that if we work together and make wise investments and focus on what really matters, we can create positive momentum towards eliminating these challenges.  Fostering NIH collaboration with smaller and rural states is critical.  And one of the strengths of the NIH IDEA program, which   many of us are very interested in.  This program provides funding to 23 states, including West Virginia, that historically have received little to no federal research funding.  The IDEA program and other NIH funding streams have been instrumental for Marshall University, West Virginia University, and other institutions in my state in developing world-class research in neuroscience, cancer, stroke, vision,   and addiction science.  Researchers throughout my state of West Virginia are making significant contributions to biomedical research in areas ranging from cancers to Alzheimer's disease to substance abuse orders.  I look forward to hosting you in West Virginia soon to see firsthand all the amazing research that is being done across our state.  This will be a challenging year for appropriations, yet supporting biomedical research is a priority for me and has long been a bicameral, bipartisan priority for Congress.   The United States leads the world in biomedical innovation and I, along with many of my colleagues on this committee, think it is important that America remains the leader in biomedical innovation and research.  Investing in biomedical research has proven to save lives while exponentially strengthening the United States economy.
I look forward to hearing from you how this budget request would continue to advance this critical research and innovation.   The NIH is a driver of economic growth, funding more than $94.58 billion in national economic activity last year.  In my small state, NIH supported over 700 jobs and $147 million in economic activity in 2024 alone.  For almost a decade, this committee has supported research towards the goals of finding treatments and a cure for Alzheimer's disease.   This goal is very personal to me, as you know, since both of my parents lived with and eventually succumbed to this disease.  And I can look out behind you and see in the audience that many folks here are extremely interested in that area of research.  These investments have allowed NIH to fund research into a wide variety of potential causes of the disease and build evidence for prevention based on a healthy lifestyle.  NIH-funded research on the amyloid protein led to the development of the FDA-approved   Alzheimer drugs that were released in 23 and 24 to slow progression of the disease.  All of this research is very important, and I look forward to working with you to continue robust and diversified Alzheimer's disease research.  NIH-funded research is also behind many of the more than 600 new cancer treatments that the FDA has approved over the last 20 years.  As a lead sponsor of the Childhood Cancer Star Act with Senator Reid,   I look forward to hearing about your priorities and advancements to combat cancer and grow our clinical trial networks, especially among our children.  Although we are making positive strides, substance abuse remains an issue in my state.  I look forward to hearing more from you about how combining the National Institute of Drug Abuse into a new National Institute on Behavioral Health will enable this important work to continue.  I've heard from many university leaders from schools ranging in size,
location, and subject about the impact of changes being implemented at NIH.  These institutions are the reason America has kept the edge in biomedical research and innovation.  As with many changes in leadership, there seems to be a heightened sense of concern and confusion that diverting resources from research will result in a less healthy America, and I hope today we can work to come to a better understanding.  We have a difficult test ahead of us this year,   But it is my hope that we will come together, just as we have done in prior fiscal years, to use our limited resources in the most effective and efficient way to support the health and well-being of all Americans.
Dr. Botticeira, I look forward to your testimony, and I will now turn to my ranking member, Senator Baldwin, for her opening statement.   Thank you, Chair Capito.  Good morning.  Over the last few months, this committee has heard from patients, from families, researchers, and experts about what is happening at the National Institutes of Health.   It's been one consistent message that this administration is cutting off lifesaving research.  And if this administration has its way, it will dismantle the U.S. biomedical research enterprise.  That would be devastating for millions of American families counting on new lifesaving treatments and cures for terrible diseases.   NIH makes the United States the global leader in biomedical research and innovation.  NIH research contributed to 354 out of 356 drugs approved by the USDA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, excuse me, between 2010 to 2019.   Simply put, without NIH, there would be no cancer immunotherapy, no overdose reversal medication, no cutting edge treatments.  NIH-funded research has saved millions of lives and significantly reduced death rates from common cancers to rare diseases.

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