In 1995 when the Republicans took over the US House of Representatives, times were tight for the Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which allocates funds to the National Institutes of Health. Under a new budget resolution, the House budget committee told John Porter, then subcommittee chair, he needed to shave 5% from the National Institutes of Health budget each year for the next five years. "I thought it was insane," Porter recalls one June afternoon from behind his imposing mahogany desk at Hogan and Hartson, a law firm in Washington, DC.
He quickly gathered a group of 10 Nobel laureates, CEOs of pharmaceutical companies, and members of the Federation of American Scientists for Biomedical Research to convince Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House, to stop cutting the NIH budget and instead to give the agency a boost. "Newt gave us one hour, ...
