On August 16, 2024, APA Services responded to the House Energy & Commerce Committee request (PDF, 443KB)opens in new window for input on its Reforming the National Institutes of Health Framework for Discussion (PDF, 3.45MB)opens in new window, a proposal released by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R–Washington). The committee’s proposed framework begins its process to reauthorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The last comprehensive reauthorization of the NIH occurred in the NIH Reform Act of 2006. “The committee’s desire for a ‘deliberative and engaging process’ is a worthy goal,” APA Services noted.
The committee’s framework seeks to eliminate the siloed nature of NIH-supported research with a goal to optimize the NIH organizational structure with current research opportunities. The association urged a robust discussion by Congress, NIH, stakeholders, and organizational experts of what is needed to improve the NIH’s organizational structure so that it can fulfill its mission. As previously reported, however, the framework does not share the criteria used to radically reorganize the NIH and collapse the 27 institutes and centers into 15 institutes. Nor have there been any hearings outlining the criteria used.
APA Services echoed the committee’s call for transparency. The association agreed that the NIH is a large, complex organization and acknowledged the committee’s recognition of the need for a comprehensive review of the NIH, including examination of its mission, objectives, programs, and performance. Referencing the fiscal year (FY) 2025 House Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill, which includes the radical restructuring of NIH, APA Services emphasized that the annual appropriations cycle is “insufficient for the complexity of such a massive reorganization of the world’s premier biomedical institution.” The association strongly asserted that a “review should be the first step and should occur before Congress passes legislation whether through the appropriations process or a stand-alone reform bill restructuring the agency.”
The association’s response highlighted the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and its efforts as a potential model for other trans-NIH research. The response also pointed to other potential models that could inform the process, including the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Networkopens in new window, which prioritized activities and initiatives focused on basic mechanisms of behavior and social processes relevant to multiple institutes, centers, and offices and public health challenges that built on, but did not duplicate, existing NIH investments; the 2022 Integration of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health, NIH Council of Councils Working Group Report (PDF, 1.96MB)opens in new window; and the White House National Science and Technology Council’s Blueprint for the Use of Social and Behavioral Science to Advance Evidenced-Based Policymaking (PDF, 1.39MB)opens in new window, a resource “to assist federal decision-makers in leveraging social and behavioral science to improve policy and program design and delivery.”
APA Services urged the committee to guard against unintended consequences of a structural reorganization for research, noting that science is a risky endeavor and that scientists study for years to reach a point where they can self-support their research, therefore, it is important to consider how any reorganization will affect the scientific workforce.
Finally, APA Services’ comments also addressed indirect costs and grant reform.
On August 14, APA Advocacy and APA Science held a joint webinar, NIH Reform: What It Could Mean for Science, and What You Need to Do Now to discuss the framework and congressional interest in reauthorizing NIH. Participants included: Mitch Prinstein, PhD, APA chief science officer; Katherine B. McGuire, MSc, APA chief advocacy officer; Marguerita Lightfoot, PhD, Portland State University School of Public Health; and William Stoops, University of Kentucky.
For more information, contact Angela L. Sharpe.