Durbin Highlights Importance Of NIH Funding To Red States & Urges Republican Senators To Stand Up For Medical Research As Trump Freezes Funding
Durbin: President Trump has cancelled hundreds of NIH-supported grants and clinical trials, placed gag orders on experts, eliminated programs that attract young people to the field, and fired nearly two thousand NIH scientists and health professionals
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor slamming the Trump Administration for freezing medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Durbin has been a fierce advocate for NIH funding and worked with his colleagues—both Republicans and Democrats—over the years to increase NIH funding by 60 percent. NIH funding appropriated by Congress and secured by Durbin, is used for research to find new ways to fight childhood cancers, ALS, Alzheimer’s, and much more.
Durbin said, “That progress, and the hope it brings to patients and families—is why I am dismayed to see how President Trump has dismantled medical research in America during his first 100 days in office… President Trump has frozen NIH funding to university labs and hospitals across the board. For example, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois—a cancer research powerhouse that earns hundreds of millions of dollars in NIH grants annually, has had its accounts frozen by the NIH for the past six weeks.”
“The amount of funding awarded in Trump’s first 100 days is dramatically lower than in past years—with more than $2 billion in research funding being held up so far this year… President Trump has cancelled hundreds of NIH-supported grants and clinical trials and placed gag orders on experts, eliminated programs that attract young people to the field, and fired nearly two thousand NIH scientists and health professionals... And on Friday, the President released a preview of his budget, which proposes to slash NIH’s medical research budget nearly in half—wiping out all the gains we have made in the last ten years. That is heartbreaking,” Durbin continued.
During his remarks, Durbin, incredulous by the silence of Congressional Republicans thus far called on his Republican colleagues to push back against President Trump’s cuts.
Continuing his campaign to showcase the harms across states represented by Republican senators, Durbin highlighted how Arkansas will be hurt by these cuts. Last year, Arkansas received more than $100 million in NIH funding which supported more than 1,500 jobs and generated nearly $300 million in economic activity. Among the top-funded NIH institutions were the University of Arkansas System and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Arkansas Children’s used NIH funding to research why kids in rural areas were experiencing higher rates of pediatric asthma and improve their treatment options. They also used NIH funding to research how to limit the negative long-term impacts of chemotherapy for kids with leukemia.
Durbin continued, “I won’t speak for either Senator of Arkansas, but helping pediatric cancer survivors and asthmatic kids in small towns sure seems like something worth fighting for, and I hope the Senators agree with me—this is a serious mistake for President Trump to cut that kind of research.”
Durbin concluded, “Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee heard testimony from a mother whose child beat cancer, thanks to NIH-funded clinical trials and treatment… Here’s what she said: ‘Cuts to medical research are not just numbers on a spreadsheet – they are stolen chances, unfinished stories, and futures left unrealized.’ I am pleading with my Republican colleagues to break their silence: let us work together to ensure those chances for medical research are not stolen, that those stories are not left unfinished, and that those futures get to be realized. Let us protect medical research together.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
This year, Durbin has twice asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass a resolution he introduced with U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), as well as 21 other Senators, that would pledge support for NIH. The resolution simply said that the work of NIH should not be subject to interruption, delay, or funding disruptions in violation of the law, and it reaffirmed that the NIH workforce is essential to sustaining medical progress. The first UC request was blocked by U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and the second was blocked by U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
Durbin has long been a strong advocate for robust medical research. His legislation, the American Cures Act, would provide annual budget increases of five percent plus inflation at America’s top four biomedical research agencies: NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense Health Program, and the Veterans Medical and Prosthetics Research Program. Thanks to Durbin’s efforts to increase medical research funding, Congress has provided NIH with a 60 percent funding increase over the past decade.
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