In Appropriations Hearing, Durbin Calls Out Trump Administration For Halting Grants That Fund Research For Diabetes Treatment And Prevention
In today’s Appropriations Committee hearing on developing treatments for Type 1 diabetes, Durbin pushed back against the Trump Administration’s cuts to medical research
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today participated in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing entitled “A Future Without Type 1 Diabetes: Accelerating Breakthroughs and Creating Hope.” During the hearing, Durbin advocated for robust federal funding for medical research institutions, particularly for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that have been critical in studying and developing treatments for diabetes.
Durbin began by recalling a conservation with Dr. Francis Collins, then-Director of NIH, who urged Durbin to provide an annual increase in medical research funding.
“Ten years ago, I went out to NIH and I met with Dr. Francis Collins, who I consider to be an American hero for all his leadership at that agency. I said, ‘What can I do to help?’ He said what we can do is make sure that every year we have a steady increase in research funds for so many different diseases. [Dr. Collins said,] ‘If you can give me five percent real growth every single year, we’ll light up the scoreboard,’” Durbin began.
“I came back here to the Senate and the Appropriations Committee, which I have served on for a few years. I enlisted the help of a number of people, my friend [Senator] Patty Murray who was here earlier, as well as Roy Blunt, who was a Republican Senator from Missouri who chaired the Committee. Senator Collins was part of it and [former Senator] Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. We managed to, over the span of 10 years, increase NIH funding from $30 billion to $48 billion,” Durbin said.
“President Trump’s budget for this next year eliminates all of the increase we put in and goes back to [under] $30 billion, where we were 10 years ago. That means we are walking away from research opportunities that can lead to cures and can lead to improving lives across the United States and around the world,” Durbin continued.
President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget requests $27.5 billion for NIH, representing the deepest cut to the institution in its history and eroding the steady increases Durbin secured with bipartisan support over the last 10 years. Further, President Trump’s budget request would consolidate NIH’s 27 institutions and centers into just eight, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which oversees NIH’s diabetes research, would see $967 million in funding cuts and be consolidated into a newly-created “National Institute on Body Systems.”
As the Trump Administration continues to gut federal health agencies, Durbin asked Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director of NIDDK, about the impact of budget cuts at the agency.
“We have had an impact already and decisions made in terms of funding agencies. Dr. Rodgers, can you tell me how many NIDDK employees have left because they were fired, placed on administrative leave, or accepted a buyout since the beginning of this year?” Durbin asked. “Can you tell me how many NIDDK grants have been suspended or terminated this year?”
Dr. Rodgers noted that operations and staffing are continually shifting at NIH and NIDDK, but that NIDDK leadership is trying to be as efficient as possible in providing available funding to researchers. Dr. Rodgers added that the Trump Administration’s staffing cuts and terminations are tangled in the court system.
“There have been dramatic cuts made in grants, some related to Type 1 diabetes. There have been termination of people working in this agency who have critical expertise for the future. If we are going to stop this, we’ve got to stand together, both political parties, and say that is the end of it. Research is part of making America great,” Durbin concluded.
This year, the Trump Administration has terminated or frozen NIH funding for 4,473 awards, totaling $4.1 billion and including more than 260 NIDDK grants in 29 states, totaling more than $120 million. This included the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), the 30-year nationwide study of people at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Eliminating funding for this study means the U.S. could lose a decade’s worth of important findings and progress toward diabetes prevention.
In Illinois, 36 NIDDK grants have been terminated or frozen for a total of $22.3 million.
On the Senate floor, 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 states 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.
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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