Durbin In Appropriations Committee: Want To 'Make America Great Again?' Stick With The NIH
In today’s Appropriations Committee hearing on the importance of funding medical research, Durbin slammed the Trump Administration for slashing critical funding at NIH
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today participated in a Committee hearing entitled “Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation.” During the hearing, Durbin emphasized the disastrous consequences of the Trump Administration’s desire to slash federal funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), effectively grinding medical research in the U.S. to a halt.
Drawing from his family’s own experience, Durbin began his remarks, “If you’ve ever been a parent sitting in a doctor’s office with a baby on your lap and heard those words that were [life] changing about a diagnosis, you knew your life would never be the same.”
“The questions that you would ask, I’ve been there, were pretty obvious. Is there a medicine? Is there a surgery? Is there a procedure? If not, is there a clinical trial? We all ask the same questions [when] faced with this terrible challenge, praying to God that one of the answers is ‘yes,’” Durbin said. “It really makes all the difference in the world.”
Durbin shared the story of his visit to NIH that sparked his efforts to secure annual funding increases for medical research at the agency and in university and hospital laboratories in all 50 states. Durbin recalled meeting with Dr. Francis Collins, then-Director of NIH, who advocated for sustainable, predictable funding increases for medical research. Following that meeting with Dr. Collins, Durbin worked alongside U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and former U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to garner support for NIH funding.
“Ten years ago, I went out to the NIH and met with Francis Collins, who I consider to be a modern-day saint… I said to Dr. Collins,… ‘What can I do?’ He said, ‘Give us five percent real growth a year. And the researchers will be confident that next year is going to be a good year too [for funding] and they’ll stick to their research,’” Durbin said. “I set out to do that.”
Over the past decade, Durbin has pushed for annual, real five percent funding increases for NIH. Since Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15), because of Durbin’s efforts, Congress has provided NIH with a 60 percent increase in annual funding, raising the appropriations level from $30 billion in FY15 to $49 billion today. However, President Trump continues to target NIH, by cancelling hundreds of grant awards, firing thousands of scientists, and freezing billions of dollars in research funding—which jeopardizes new breakthroughs that provide hope for patients. Reports indicate that President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request will propose slashing medical research funding at NIH by more than 40 percent.
“The suggested change from the Trump Administration in NIH will wipe out all of that. Ten years. One decade of work, bipartisan work, to increase medical research across the United States. That’s what’s at stake here,” Durbin said.
Durbin then highlighted the groundbreaking research and development of medications that happens at NIH, all of which is jeopardized by President Trump’s cuts.
“I want to mention the number of drugs that have been approved by the FDA [from] 2010 to 2019 – 356 new drugs… How many came out of NIH research? 354 of the 356,” Durbin said. “Their research leads to medicine that makes a difference.”
Durbin then concluded his remarks by calling on his colleagues to push back against the Trump Administration’s ruthless cuts to medical research.
“Want to ‘Make America Great Again?’ Don’t run away from that child sitting there at that table,” Durbin said in reference to the daughter, who is a cancer survivor, of Emily Stenson, a patient advocate and witness at today’s hearing. “Stick with the research at NIH that gives her hope.”
Video of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s question in Committee is available here for TV stations.
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