March 2016

This week, Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Richard Burr (R-NC) lead a "Dear Colleague" letter to the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee urging the subcommittee to maintain a "strong commitment" to NIH funding in the fiscal year 2017 health spending bill. The bipartisan letter was signed by 46 senators. In the letter, the senators wrote, "As we continue to grapple with emerging threats like Ebola and Zika and if we are to continue improving the health of Americans and the quality of their lives, we must continue to invest in areas like biomedical research that have the potential to save money in the future, improve the lives of Americans and offer an economic return for our nation."

A similar effort is being finalized in the House of Representatives. There, Representatives David McKinley (R-WV), Susan Davis (D-CA), Andre Carson (D-IN), and Peter King (R-NY) have sponsored a letter reiterating the research community's ask of $34.5 billion in funding for the NIH in 2017, which would be a $2.4 billion increase over current funding. The House letter includes 139 bipartisan members.