‘There Is No Investment That Pays Greater Dividends’: Susan Collins Demands Continued NIH Research Funding

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During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) spoke about the need for continued funding in the National Institutes of Health.

Transcript

00:00The committee will come to order. Good morning. As this is the first full committee hearing of

00:08the Senate Appropriations Committee in the 119th Congress, I would like to first take a moment

00:16to welcome back our returning members and to also welcome the new members of the committee.

00:26I'm very pleased to be joined once again at the helm of this committee by the senior senator from

00:33Washington, Vice Chair Murray. The topic for our first full committee hearing, biomedical research,

00:44keeping America's edge in innovation, is significant. It speaks to the high priority

00:54that this committee places on biomedical research. There is no investment that pays greater dividends

01:04to Americans' families than our investment in this research, which can lead to life-saving

01:13and life-enhancing discoveries. For more than 75 years, the United States has been the world leader

01:22in scientific research and technological innovation. We earned this position through the hard work

01:31of countless researchers and scientists and their staff, many of whom trusted their careers through

01:40the culture of science built by the American people. At the heart of that culture is a strategy

01:49coordinating grant-based research at university and private labs funded through the National Science

01:57Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy,

02:05and many other federal agencies. This strategy has been an enormous success. In the years following World War II,

02:17the U.S. emerged as the global leader in science and technology, accounting for 69 percent of global R&D

02:28across all fields by the year 1960. In biomedical research, the U.S. dominated the second half

02:38of the 20th century. During this period, our scientists, based in the United States, published 70 percent

02:47of the papers in the top cited journals, secured the majority of the world's biomedical patents,

02:55and won more than half of the Nobel Prizes awarded in medicine. Stability is a key aspect of the American

03:08formula because it allows scientists to focus their work knowing that they will have the support they need

03:17to pursue and test their ideas from start to finish. The freedom to explore and collaborate

03:25is also crucial, especially to younger scientists who are eager to get into the lab

03:33and work on what inspires them. This combination has made the United States a, quote,

03:41irresistible magnet for researchers everywhere, as Dr. Haller, one of our witnesses, put it so well,

03:50drawing the best and the brightest from around the world. Their work demonstrates the value of the

03:58American system, leading to breakthroughs that save lives and restore health for so many. For example,

04:09over the past 20 years, the FDA has approved more than 600 new cancer treatments, including standard

04:18chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies, all made possible by decades of the National

04:30Cancer Institute investment into basic research. Another example relates to Alzheimer's and dementia

04:40research. Because of studies financed by the National Institute on Aging, research

04:48researchers now have an array of biomarker tests for dementia, including a new blood test, allowing for

04:57earlier diagnosis of this devastating disease. But the continued success of this system and America's leadership

05:09cannot be taken for granted. Since the turn of the century, China's investment in biomedical research has grown

05:17more than 50-fold. China has now caught up with the U.S. and biomedical patents filed and

05:27papers published. Proposed funding cuts, the firing of essential federal scientists, and policy uncertainties

05:39threatened to undermine the foundation for our nation's global leadership. One such recent

05:48development has been the unilateral imposition of an arbitrary 15 percent indirect cost cap on NIH grants in

06:00February, followed by more recent caps on grants from DOE and other federal agencies.

06:09While some reform of the facilities and administrative system may be merited, this one-size-fits-all cap will be

06:20extremely harmful to many institutions and the people who benefit from their work. They also are directly

06:32contrary to language approved by this committee year after year after year and incorporated into appropriations law.

06:44Also very troubling are the administration's abrupt cancellation of grants, proposals to slash federal funding, and

06:56laying off scientists and technical experts with apparently little or no justification. These actions put our

07:06leadership in biomedical innovation at real risk and must be reversed. America's edge in biomedical innovation is also of

07:20immense economic value to the nation, generating, for example, two and a half dollars for each dollar invested through

07:29NIH, supporting 400,000 jobs, and driving global health standards. In Maine, NIH grants and contracts support 1,468 jobs and

07:46$286 million in economic activity. But we must not lose sight of what is truly at stake here.

07:59This debate is not just about scientists and researchers and economic activity. If clinical trials are

08:12halted, research is stopped and laboratories are closed. Effective treatments and cures for diseases like

08:23Alzheimer's, type 1 diabetes, childhood cancers, and Duchenne's muscular dystrophy will be delayed or not discovered at all.

08:36We must preserve and strengthen America's leadership for the sake of families all across this country.

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