WIKIMEDIA, BJOERTVEDT
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and five directors of NIH institutes testified on the importance of biomedical research before a US House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee, in light of proposed budget cuts to the NIH budget for the 2018 fiscal year. The hearing was held yesterday morning (May 17) before the subcommittee that manages the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services—the same committee that negotiated the $2 billion increase to the NIH budget for the 2017 fiscal year.
Collins and his colleagues credited the NIH for recent advancements in treating and managing disease, including sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, metastatic breast cancer, Ebola, and Zika. They also touted economic returns from federal research investments. For instance, Collins said the U.S. has seen a 1 percent drop in the death rate for cancer over the past 20 years, and “each one percent drop [in death rate from cancer] is estimated by economists to be worth $500 billion to our economy.”
The $8 billion cut proposed by President Donald Trump would be the equivalent of cutting 5,000 to 8,000 grants, ...
