Chair Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Modernizing NIH, Bringing Lifesaving Cures to American Families

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds more than 50,000 biomedical research projects a year, more than any other institution in the world. These investments drive lifesaving advances to address chronic disease, cure cancers, and treat other conditions affecting millions of Americans.

I treated patients in my medical practice for over 25 years. I've seen the power of innovation to save lives. And I've seen the tragedy when a patient suffers and dies from a disease for which there is no treatment.

For decades, Republicans and Democrats have supported the NIH mission. Just about every 10 years, Congress considers NIH legislation. In 2006, we passed the NIH Reform Act, which empowered the director to advance science through the Common Fund and better oversee all 27 institutes and centers. In 2016, we passed the 21st Century Cures Act, historic legislation accelerating large-scale research to bring treatments and cures to Americans.

It's now 2026; it's time for us to strengthen NIH and American leadership in biomedical research.

Putting down partisan jerseys and working together to improve families' health, Congress, and this Committee can do this.

I released a white paper in May 2024 with ideas from those who worked with the agency as to how to modernize the agency to make it better able to fulfill its mission and deliver more lifesaving cures to those who desperately need them. If you are dying you are desperate.

This includes improving NIH's grant review process and application requirements to help researchers who are applying for NIH funding move away from risk-averse behaviors-funding more big ideas and fewer incremental experiments.

How can NIH's Intramural Program with in-house scientists, laboratories, and research hospital better complement research happening at universities? How can intramural and extramural scientists better work together tackling complex problems, sharing resources and expertise. Any scientist should be able to leverage NIH's technology and Clinical Center in the same way that a physics professor can use particle accelerators funded by the Department of Energy.

This would allow that genius at a small university to access the equipment that will allow her genius to shine through, as opposed to being starved by the lack of equipment. We have mid-career scientists who feel their careers are stagnating because they do not work at universities in San Francisco or Boston. If we want to get the most out of the talent across the country, how can NIH be more of a resource for others?

How can we harness the power of AI to make findings from all studies, positive and negative, more easily accessible, so scientists don't go down blind alleyways that others have explored, but it just wasn't published so we don't know it's a blind alleyway.

Finally, Congress should strengthen trust in federally funded research by ensuring NIH funds high-quality, well-constructed experiments - particularly of research conducted in other countries - in a way that does not add unnecessary administrative burden on researchers.

Dr. Bhattacharya, I thank you for coming before the Committee to discuss the agency's efforts and how Congress can assist. Since your confirmation, you have brought fresh ideas and a willingness to rethink how NIH operates, which will strengthen the agency in the long run. I hope the Trump administration's collaboration and support will move Congressional reform efforts forward and get our shared ideas over the finish line.

At the same time, we must acknowledge recent actions at NIH that may create uncertainty within the American research enterprise and undermine the agency's ability to serve the public.

I want to be clear I'm channeling what I have heard from folks on the ground right now. Republican and Democrats on this Committee have heard concerns about grant cancellations and the message those cancellations and the transparency around them have sent to the broader innovation community.

Last year, NIH reportedly terminated more than 1,000 awards amounting to $721 million. Among them were 58 projects on Alzheimer's disease, 99 on HIV/AIDS, 97 related to lifesaving vaccines. It even appears to have canceled 6 projects examining biological differences between women and men, a priority for President Trump and Republicans nationwide.

Beyond NIH, the Department of Health and Human Services last year announced the cancelation of roughly $500 million in mRNA research. Within the last two weeks, Moderna announced that it would no longer invest in late-stage clinical trials for vaccines using mRNA technology. This technology was advanced through NIH partnerships and enabled President Trump's Operation Warp Speed, an historic achievement that saved millions of lives and reopened our economy. Losing this critical tool threatens our defense against future pandemics and puts American families at risk.

I'm a strong conservative. We must ensure taxpayer dollars go to research that helps families, not political ideology masquerading as science. This includes correcting progressive Biden-era actions that coerced scientists into including DEI language in thousands of NIH-funded projects; even where it had no scientific relevance and did not make Americans healthier.

But, we can achieve this goal without upending lifesaving research and America's biomedical leadership. Canceling critical investments that have long enjoyed bipartisan support erodes trust and makes substantive reforms less likely.

Dr. Bhattacharya, this is an opportunity for you to address these concerns and chart a historic path moving forward. I want to be a good partner in that effort. I want the Trump administration to have the greatest NIH in history. We have the opportunity to unleash American innovation to solve our biggest health challenges.

NIH and Congress must work together to meet the moment and improve Americans' health. Families and patients are counting on us.

With that, I recognize Senator Sanders for his opening statement.

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