'I'm Personally Disappointed': Dick Durbin Laces Into NIH Director Over Budget Cuts

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At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) questioned NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya about funding cuts after he spent years to increase NIH funding.

Transcript

00:00Senator Durbin.

00:01Senator Durbin.

00:02Thanks a lot, Madam Chair, and Dr. Welcome.

00:05Ten years ago, I made a visit to the NIH, and I met with a man who I believe is an American

00:10hero by the name of Francis Collins.

00:13He had the job, which you currently have.

00:16And I asked him what I could do as a member of the Senate to help NIH.

00:21In previous years, the number of bipartisan efforts that resulted in doubling its budget,

00:27I didn't think that was realistic.

00:28And he said to me, what is realistic, and it's hard to do, is give us 5% real growth

00:34every single year.

00:36If you can do that, we're going to light up the scoreboard.

00:39We're making breakthroughs in so many different areas.

00:425% real growth.

00:43Our researchers will know they can count on next year being another good year for medical

00:48research.

00:50So I came back here and I talked to Patty Murray, who will join us, I'm sure, before this is

00:53over.

00:54I asked her to join in this effort.

00:56Then I reached across the table to Roy Blunt, who was a predecessor as the chair of this

01:01committee, and Lamar Alexander and a number of others who are here today and said, let's

01:06go for 5%.

01:07You know what we did?

01:08In 10 years, we went from $30 billion at NIH to $48 billion.

01:13An $18 billion increase in medical research at NIH.

01:18I couldn't have been prouder of all of our bipartisan efforts to do that.

01:22This year, your budget wipes it out completely.

01:26Wipes out $18 billion that we fought for over 10 years.

01:29And I can't understand that.

01:32I disagree with this administration on so many things.

01:35But this is the one that really gets to me personally, to think that this nation would

01:40walk away from medical research.

01:43For God's sake, we'd lead the world in medical research.

01:47Why would we give up on it?

01:49I look at the specifics here.

01:50Cancer, 2025, 2 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States.

01:56600,000 people will die from that disease.

01:59Yet your budget requests a 38% cut, 38% to the National Cancer Institute.

02:077 million people nationwide are living with Alzheimer's.

02:10This disease, of course, is devastating to families.

02:14It robs them of their loved ones.

02:15Yet your budget requests a 39% cut to the National Institute of Aging.

02:20When you look at specific schools, of course, I'm concerned about Illinois.

02:25We have great research there.

02:26Northwestern University has not received a penny for NIH grants in 11 weeks.

02:331,359 NIH awards to Northwestern have been frozen or terminated,

02:40holding $81 million in research to date.

02:44I could go through some of the specifics of this research,

02:47but it includes $9 million in clinical trials for brain cancer, colon cancer,

02:54breast cancer, childhood cancer.

02:57How are you able to reconcile these budget decisions with the reality of research

03:05and what it means to alleviate suffering and, more importantly, to give people hope?

03:11If research is underway, you at least have the hope that maybe there'll be a cure,

03:16maybe in the lifetime of someone I love.

03:19How can you walk away from that?

03:22Well, Senator, my intention is not to walk away from that.

03:24I mean, I think that...

03:25But the budget speaks for itself.

03:26You cut $18 billion in research.

03:29Senator, the budget is a collaboration between Congress and the administration.

03:34So, you know, I look forward to talking about the advances that NIH researchers have made.

03:43I mean, I think the transition has been a very bumpy time.

03:48And I don't mean to, like, downplay that,

03:51but there have been opportunities for reform for how the biomedical research enterprise works.

03:56I think the decisions about Northwestern happened before I got into office.

04:01But let me just say that...

04:03The buck stops in your office now.

04:04I know it does.

04:05So let me just say that...

04:06Don't blame another person.

04:07I'm not blaming...

04:08We're asking you and you're in charge.

04:09Senator, I agree with that.

04:10So let me just say that I think that the way that the universities operated during the pandemic

04:17wasn't always, didn't always make it easy for scientists to do their work.

04:23I can tell you that personally from being a professor.

04:27And I think some of the...

04:31Eliminating grants, eliminating research, how can that solve the problem?

04:35So I think that I'm very hopeful that a resolution can be made with the universities

04:40where those decisions have been...

04:43Those grants have been paused.

04:45I've worked very hard to make sure, for instance, at Harvard, we didn't pause grants, for instance,

04:53to the medical centers because there were clinical trials going on.

04:58But I think that this is...

04:59I'm very hopeful that these universities where these pauses have happened will come to terms

05:05so that we can move forward with the agenda that I think you and I both share.

05:09Well, let me say this.

05:10I am personally disappointed.

05:13You know, you try as a senator to pick one or two areas and really make a difference.

05:17And I think this committee and the members of this committee on both sides made a difference,

05:22dramatic difference, 60% increase in NIH research over the last 10 years.

05:27You've wiped it out, just wiped it out.

05:30And now we start anew.

05:31And forget my disappointment, the disappointment of people sitting behind you

05:35who are counting on this research for hope for tomorrow,

05:39that life will be better for them and their families.

05:42Madam Chair, I ask consent that a statement from the ALS Association be entered in the record

05:48after my statement.

05:49Without objection.

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