Lisa Murkowski Slams 'Unprecedented Hits’ To NIH Dashing The ‘Hope’ Of Future Biomedical Researchers

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During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) raised concerns about funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health.

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00:00Thank you Madam Chairman and thank you for this very important hearing. I wish

00:06that I had been able to spend the full morning here. We've all been pulled in

00:09so many different corners but just just the the the few minutes that I've been

00:14here with colleagues and and listening to the comments and the concerns know

00:20that I feel like everybody's speaking to me and my family situation. I just told

00:26Senator Moran that when he mentioned the hopes and dreams of young researchers

00:33being dashed he's talking about my nephew. I called him yesterday because it was his

00:38birthday he's a junior at Marquette and he says he says I'm floored by by what

00:45we're seeing all I want to do is find the cure and Senator Coons he wants to help

00:52find a cure for ALS because of how that has touched our family and when we talk

00:57about hope and what happens when you don't have hope I can tell you because

01:02the ALS community reaches out to me as one of their advocates here as I know they

01:07do with you Senator Coons and they said when they when they see the news about

01:11what is happening the the lack of hope pushes them to the point where where

01:19unfortunately many are thinking about about further shortening their time

01:26because without hope how do you get through each day knowing that you are

01:33incrementally on the decline and so the significance of what we're talking about

01:40and the contributions that we see through NIH through through our federal entities

01:46those who are are getting up every single morning to focus on hard things to

01:52make that incremental difference and then those who who back them I see some in

01:58the in the audience here today who are giving their time and their treasure for

02:03advocacy in in Alzheimer's in ALS I guess I want to ask a specific question here we we are

02:15dealing with unprecedented unprecedented hits to to the NIH and to those who who have

02:29given their all to be there for others we we do a good job I think of of taking the

02:40opportunities in in other research areas to to better gain leverage with the

02:49advancements that we make how how can we do more particularly at this really

02:56difficult time to ensure that the coordination that we have between

03:02complementary research efforts and and and I see this with ALS where NIH is

03:10focusing on understanding the biology DOD is is looking at the early stage drug

03:16development the FDA is doing clinical trials so you've got a lot going that

03:20comes together what more can and should we be doing and and and and with the

03:29funding constraints that we are looking at right now how are these collaboration

03:35efforts being compromised and I'll throw this out to either you Dr. Parika or Dr.

03:41Holler yeah go ahead just very quickly that coordination is vital when you're

03:47trying to approach something like ALS which has so many different facets but I'll

03:50tell you right now that the moment at this moment I want to just put a real face on

03:55this we keep stiff upper lips here but the scientific community is in paralysis

04:01right now it is in paralysis across the country in every state there are graduate students there

04:07are scientists there are senior scientists who instead of thinking about the very

04:10problems you're talking about are thinking about the next grant they're

04:13thinking about the next six weeks and so if I can put a little bit of urgency for

04:18this committee it is not about the FY 26 appropriations process which is going to be

04:23really important and you can't and you're gonna see a skinny budget that will scare the heck out of all of us

04:27it's about the obligation of funding right now and making sure that we

04:32actually see some stability that word stability madam chair that you used is so

04:38important and we have lost that right now and there's paralysis that doesn't

04:41enable us to spend the time on thinking about the very question the very good

04:44question you just asked Dr. Holler thank you very much senator for this very

04:49important question research is about stability and continuity and I give you an

04:55example we have recruited a wonderful brilliant young researcher Emily Spaulding

05:01she has been awarded for her PhD research on neuronal mechanisms she's

05:07working on ALS she's working in roundworms and understands how transporting

05:13molecules across neurons is important now as a young researcher she's driven by

05:19curiosity she is driven by a desire to understand knowledge to make contributions

05:27to understanding ALS and the disease but at certain points of her career she

05:33needs federal support she needs this continuity when you start as a young

05:39student you need federal funding when you embark on postdoctoral research or in

05:46her case now waiting for the last seven months that her grant she has written

05:54which is excellent and will be reviewed and it hasn't been reviewed so this

06:00stability this is what we need now at the moment and then later on when she

06:05becomes an accomplished scientist and is pursuing bold ideas then federal support is

06:12needed again and as was already mentioned young people we train them when they

06:21discuss what to do with their lives and whether they want to pursue a career in

06:28biomedical science this message of uncertainty is deleterious thank you thank you

06:36madam chairman

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