ATS Joins Letter to Congress Urging Support for Biomedical Research

The ATS signed on to a recent letter coordinated by the Ad-Hoc Group for Medical Research to congressional leadership urging inclusion of funding for biomedical research, including research infrastructure, in national infrastructure legislation under consideration by Congress. Signed by 229 national organizations and academic and research institutions, the letter voices alarm about the impact that the COVID pandemic is having on the research workforce and pre-pandemic research supported by the NIH such as laboratory shutdowns and the risk of undoing progress towards strengthening the research workforce, including among women, underrepresented minorities, and early-career investigators. The letter states, “As you know, the federal commitment to medical research supported and conducted by NIH not only has been core to the extraordinary progress the U.S. has made against COVID-19 through multiple effective vaccines and other countermeasures, but also is instrumental in combating every other health threat facing patients and their families.”

Specifically, the letter urges Congress to provide $10 billion in emergency funding for NIH, and additional funding for extramural and intramural research facility upgrades and technology investments such as high-speed computation, greater data repository capacity, improved bio-containment capabilities, and other cutting-edge research facilities that will help ensure greater resiliency during pandemics.