In Appropriations Hearing, Durbin Slams Trump Administration For Decimating Medical Research Funding At NIH
In today’s Appropriations Committee hearing on the NIH budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026, Dr. Bhattacharya failed to justify drastic cuts to medical research on cancer or Alzheimer’s
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today participated in a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to review the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During the hearing, Durbin pressed Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of NIH, on the Trump Administration’s drastic cuts and delays to medical research funding, which jeopardizes new treatments and cures for patients.
Durbin began by recalling his meeting with Dr. Francis Collins, former Director of NIH, who told him that the agency needed consistent funding to ensure scientists have the resources and stability to continue their critical research.
“Ten years ago, I made a visit to NIH, and I met with a man that I believe is an American hero by the name of Dr. Francis Collins. He had the job that you currently have. I asked him what I could do as a member of the Senate to help NIH… He said to me… ‘give us five percent real growth [in funding] every single year, and we’ll light up the scoreboard,’” Durbin said. “I came back here and I talked to [Senator] Patty Murray… I reached across the table to [former Republican Senator] Roy Blunt, who was a predecessor as a Chair of this committee, and [former Republican Senator] Lamar Alexander, and a number of others here today, and said, ‘let’s go for five percent.’ Do you know what we did? In 10 years, we went from $30 billion at NIH to $48 billion, an $18 billion increase in medical research at NIH. I could not have been prouder of all our bipartisan efforts to do that.”
Despite long-term, bipartisan support for increased funding for NIH, the Trump Administration has proposed slashing the institution’s budget, requesting only $27.5 billion for NIH, a 40 percent decrease in funding from Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). If approved, this would be the deepest cut to funding in NIH’s history and would erode the entire funding increase that Durbin and his bipartisan cohort secured forthe research institution since 2015.
“This year your budget wipes it out completely. It wipes out $18 billion that we have fought for over 10 years. I can’t understand that,” Durbin said.
“I disagree with this Administration on so many things, but this is really the one that gets to me personally. To think that this nation would walk away from medical research, for God’s sake. We lead the world in medical research. Why would we give up on it?” Durbin said.
Durbin then underscored the consequences of cutting life-saving medical research and condemned the Trump Administration’s decision to rip funding away from Illinois universities conducting this research.
“In 2025, two million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and 600,000 people will die from that disease. Yet, your budget requests a 38 percent cut to the National Cancer Institute. Seven million people nationwide are living with Alzheimer’s. This disease, of course, is devastating to families. It robs them of their loved ones, yet your budget requests a 39 percent cut to the National Institute on Aging,” Durbin said.
“Northwestern University has not received a penny for NIH grants in 11 weeks. 1,359 NIH awards to Northwestern have been frozen or terminated, halting $81 million in research to date. I could go through the specifics of this research, but it includes $9 million in clinical trials for brain cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, childhood cancer,” Durbin continued.
Durbin called on Dr. Bhattacharya to offer a justification for the elimination or pausing of these grants.
“How are you able to reconcile these budget decisions with the reality of research and what it means to alleviate suffering, and more importantly, to give people hope? If research is underway, you at least have the hope that maybe there will be a cure… How can you walk away from that?” Durbin asked Dr. Bhattacharya.
“My intention is not to walk away from that,” Dr. Bhattacharya replied.
“The budget speaks for itself. You cut $18 billion in research,” Durbin reminded Dr. Bhattacharya.
Dr. Bhattacharya struggled to provide an explanation for the cuts, asserting that the cuts to Northwestern’s research grants happened before his tenure as Director of NIH began.
“The buck stops in your office now. Don’t blame another person. We are asking you, and you’re in charge,” Durbin said. “Eliminating grants, eliminating research, how can that solve the problem?”
Dr. Bhattacharya skirted the question, saying that he hopes that universities and research institutions can “come to terms” with the situation and attempt to continue their clinical trials and research.
Durbin concluded his speaking time by expressing his frustration that the Trump Administration has turned its back on medical research and calling on Administration officials to truly understand the ramifications of slashing NIH’s budget.
“I am personally disappointed… I think this Committee and members of this Committee, on both sides, made a dramatic difference – a 60 percent increase in NIH research [funding] over the last 10 years. You’ve wiped it out,” Durbin said.
“Forget my disappointment. [Think about] the disappointment of the people sitting behind you [health care advocates] who are counting on this research for hope tomorrow that life will be better for them and their families,” Durbin concluded.
After Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s inability to offer satisfactory answers to questions about cuts to medical research funding during an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing last month, Durbin sent a letter to Dr. Bhattacharya ahead of today’s hearing with hopes that he could provide specific answers on cancelled and paused grant funding for ALS, childhood cancers, Alzheimer’s Disease, and congenital heart research. Dr. Bhattacharya’s office replied to Durbin’s letter; however, the response failed to provide the rationales for the terminated grants and it offered no details about paused research grants.
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.
-30-