WATCH: Baldwin Presses Trump Nominee for NIH on Stalled Cancer, Alzheimer’s Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) questioned President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, on this Administration’s continued efforts to stop funding for research into cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The halt on funding for this research comes as the NIH continues to cancel necessary meetings to approve funding, cut grant specialists, and fire doctors, scientists, and nurses who support clinical trials for patients.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are slashing research for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cancer so billionaires don’t have to pay their fair share,” said Senator Baldwin. “The NIH does truly lifesaving work, and the world’s premier biomedical research agency needs a leader who will help keep people healthy and find the cures for diseases – not one who will take away families’ hopes and dreams of having a cure for diseases that take their loved ones too soon.”

On Monday, Senator Baldwin called out the Trump Administration for stopping $65 million in funding for Alzheimer’s disease research at 14 research institutions across the country. 14 of the 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRCs) have had their funding halted by the NIH because the Trump Administration continues to cancel NIH Advisory Council meetings, which are the final required step in the grant approval process. She also slammed the Trump Administration for halting all grant funding through NIH for ten days last month, despite two court orders directing the Trump Administration to end its unlawful efforts to freeze all federal grants.

In addition to frozen funding for critical research, Senator Baldwin also has raised alarms on staffing cuts to 1,200 research scientists, nurses, pharmacists, ethics specialists, police officers, data scientists, budget analysts, and patient care technicians at the agency, including critical patient care specialists at the NIH Clinical Center. The NIH Clinical Center is the nation’s largest hospital devoted entirely to clinical research, treating about 10,000 patients with rare and severe diseases every year. Mass firings of Clinical Center staff threaten patient safety and may shut down ongoing clinical trials, cutting off access to treatments and cures for patients who have nowhere else to go.

These impacts are being directly felt in Wisconsin, where research institutions and patients are dealing with the fallout from this administration arbitrarily capping indirect cost rates at 15%, which will slash funding that helps research institutions, like the University of Wisconsin, conduct research, operate their facilities and labs, pay staff, and buy equipment needed for groundbreaking work to find cures for diseases and treatments for patients.

A full recording of Senator Baldwin’s questions is available here.