 Health Care |
Health Care |
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Trump NIH chief poised to face budget cuts scrutiny at hearing
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NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya heads to Capitol Hill Tuesday to answer questions about the agency's budget as agency staffers protest changes made under his leadership so far. |
Bhattacharya will have to defend the $18 billion in cuts to the agency that the Trump administration has requested. This would mean a 40 percent reduction in NIH's budget next year. He'll also likely be questioned during the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing about NIH's current budget, as the administration has terminated billions of dollars in grants. The hearing comes one day after 90 agency scientists signed a rare letter of protest, modeled after Bhattacharya's "Great Barrington Declaration" that objected to the Biden administration's COVID-19 policies. Titled "The Bethesda Declaration" in reference to where NIH's campus is located, the letter lambasted several of the major changes carried out at NIH under the orders of the Trump administration: - The researchers called on Bhattacharya to restore foreign collaborations with the global scientific community, stating that critical research has been compromised and U.S. scientists have been cut off from technologies only available abroad.
- They also demanded that NIH restore independent peer review of research at the risk of losing "scientific integrity and public trust." The letter accused current NIH leadership of "ignoring peer review to cater to political whims."
- The 15 percent cap on indirect costs is "arbitrary" and hinders research, according to NIH staffers. They urged Bhattacharya to continue indirect costs rates that reflect "research costs borne by academic institutions." A federal judge ruled in April to permanently block the cap, though NIH is appealing this decision.
- In their final point of issue, NIH staffers called for their laid off colleagues to be given their jobs back, writing the reduction in force has "slowed the pace of science, held up extramural grant and contract funding, made NIH less transparent and efficient, and put Clinical Center patients at risk."
"Academic freedom should not be applied selectively based on political ideology. To achieve political aims, NIH has targeted multiple universities with indiscriminate grant terminations, payment freezes for ongoing research, and blanket holds on awards regardless of the quality, progress, or impact of the science," the letter read. Bhattacharya responded to the letter on social media, arguing the letter had "some fundamental misconceptions" about NIH's recent actions and further claiming the changes they're protesting are not as severe as they make it seem. |
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How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond: |
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is removing every member of the independent panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, an unprecedented escalation in his quest to reshape the agency. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed released Monday, Kennedy said the move was necessary to restore faith in vaccines. "A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence … |
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FBI Director Kash Patel said in an interview this week that his agency made a “breakthrough” as it continues to investigate former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key player in the U.S.’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Patel cautioned Fauci’s critics from expecting too much. “We just had a great breakthrough … |
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The gender gap between men and women who identify as pro-choice has widened to its largest point on record, according to a new Gallup poll. Sixty-one percent of women view themselves as pro-choice when it comes to abortion while 41 percent of men call themselves pro-choice, the poll released Monday found. The 20-point difference between the genders is the largest gap since Gallup began tracking public opinion on abortion twenty … |
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Upcoming news themes and events we're watching: |
- NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya testifies Tuesday at 10 a.m. in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing about the agency's budget.
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Branch out with a different read: |
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What's a Medicaid cut? Senate GOP tiptoes around $800B question |
When is a Medicaid cut not actually a cut? That’s the $800 billion question facing Senate Republicans as they write their own version of the sweeping House-passed tax and spending bill. Administration officials and senators defending against attacks on the bill have coalesced around a message that there will be no cuts to benefits, and the only people who will lose coverage are the ones who never deserved … |
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Local and state headlines on health care: |
- $20K bonuses among latest moves to improve California's prison mental health system (KFF Health News)
- Miami's drinking water is threatened by a nuclear plant (Bloomberg)
- Houston's Empower Pharmacy recalls 8,000 testosterone injections, citing quality concerns (Houston Chronicle)
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Health news we've flagged from other outlets: |
- As cannabis users age, health risks appear to grow (KFF Health News)
- 5 food power players have strong ties to the MAHA movement (Stat)
- RFK Jr says Americans were healthier when his uncle was president. Is he right? (NPR)
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Most read stories on The Hill right now: |
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Brad Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, overwhelmingly lost his bid to lead the D.C. Bar Association in a race with record turnout, … Read more |
| The U.S. military is set to temporarily move about 700 Marines to Los Angeles, further increasing military presence in the city after the Trump administration … Read more |
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Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill: |
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