APA Services joined more than 500 partner organizations of the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research coalition in a letteropens in new window with an accompanying recommendation Q&Aopens in new window to Congress in support of $51.3 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, in addition to support for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The coalition comprises organizations representing patients, scientists, health professionals, research and academic institutions, and industry.
Emphasizing that “robust support for medical research makes Americans healthier,” the group stressed that “underfunding NIH will slow the pace of scientific discovery as does imposing other problematic disruptions on the agency.” The groups highlighted that NIH's meaningful annual funding growth has been a steadfast bipartisan national priority over the last decade and beyond.
Bhattacharya begins NIH tenure
On April 1, Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, began his tenure as the 18th director of NIH. Bhattacharya is a doctor, economist, and former Stanford University professor. The Senate confirmed him in March. The NIH press release announcing his tenure noted, "Dr. Bhattacharya will play an instrumental role in shaping the agency’s activities and outlook and ensuring they align with the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commissionopens in new window.”
On his first day, in an email to the NIH community, Bhattacharya outlined his top five priorities, which include:
- Focus on improving population health: including the chronic disease crisis
- Reproducibility and rigor: solving the reproducibility crisis in the biomedical sciences
- Innovation and collaboration: embracing new technologies, ideas and approaches
- Research safety and transparency: NIH-supported research should not cause harm to human populations and meet the highest ethical and transparency standards
- Academic freedom: fostering an “environment where varied [diverse] perspectives are valued and encouraged.”
Recognizing the NIH is undergoing a “time of tremendous change,” the result of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) streamlining effort and upcoming reorganizationopens in new window, Bhattacharya acknowledged the firing of his NIH colleagues. He emphasized that it was “in no way a reflection of the quality of their work.” He also pointed out the reductions in the NIH workforce will profoundly impact key administrative functions: communications, legislative affairs, procurement, and human resources. Approximately 1,200 employees have been laid off thus far. Reportedly, the NIH is expected to cut between 3,400 and 5,000 positions from its workforce of 20,000.
This “time of tremendous change” has included terminating various federal research grants that no longer align with the agency’s priorities. NIH has terminated active research grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; LGBTQ+ issues; vaccines; the health of women; HIV/AIDS; and gender identity, among others. According to the grant termination notices, the grants “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities.”
Additionally, five of the 27 institutes and directors leading NIH have been removed or placed on administrative leave, four of them the day before Bhattacharya’s first day. They included Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); Diana Bianchi, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); Shannon Zenk, National Institute of Nursing (NINR); Vence Bonham, acting director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI); and Jeanne Marrazzo, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Within HHS, including NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration, reportedly up to 10,000 people are expected to lose their jobs in the reorganization. This represents a 25% reduction in HHS’s workforce when combined with the 10,000 HHS employees who accepted the administration’s early retirement offer early in the Trump administration.
Senate holds shadow hearing on NIH
On March 26, the day after Bhattacharya’s Senate confirmation and before he began his NIH tenure, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)opens in new window and Peter Welch (D-VT)opens in new window hosted a forum/shadow hearing: “Cures in Crisis: What Gutting NIH Research Means for Americans with Cancer, Alzheimer’s, & Other Diseasesopens in new window.” Baldwin, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee which oversees HHS, was joined by several HELP-member colleagues, including Patty Murray (D-WA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD). More than a dozen senators participated in the shadow hearing’s discussionopens in new window of terminated grants, mass layoffs, and delayed funding for clinical trials and research. Speakers included:
- Monica Bertagnolli, MD, NIH’s 17th director
- Sterling Johnson, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist with research interests in early identification of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and associate director of Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
- Larry Saltzman, MD, retired physician living with leukemia and former executive research director for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
- Whitney Wharton, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders as an associate professor at Emory University
- Mr. Jessy Ybarra, a veteran living with ALS and a board of trustees member for the ALS Association
On April 30, the Senate Appropriations full committee will hold a two-hearing series on “Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation.” The hearing will be live-streamedopens in new window.
APA Services will continue to oppose policies that jeopardize the well-being of individuals, families, and communities nationwide who rely on research to improve their lives. Be assured that the association will also continue to engage with our members and Congress to protect the sustainability of NIH.
For more information, contact Angela L. Sharpe.