At HELP Hearing, Senator Murray Slams Trump Administration on Chaos at NIH; Cuts to Biomedical Research and Clinical Trials

***WATCH: Senator Murray's exchange at the hearing***

Washington, D.C. - Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing with U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jayanta "Jay" Bhattacharya, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)-a former chair and senior member of the HELP Committee-spoke forcefully on how the Trump administration's cuts at the NIH have cost countless families their hope for life-changing treatments and cures and severely set back American competitiveness in biomedical research. Senator Murray also held Dr. Bhattacharya accountable for his decision to disband the NIH's Advisory Committee to the Director-an unprecedented change to the longstanding expert panel-and Institute and Center advisory councils and review panels, and the decision to ban fetal tissue research to appease anti-abortion extremists.

In a major victory for biomedical research and families, Senator Murray secured $48.7 billion for NIH, including $226 million for Senator Murray's landmark 21st Century Cures Act, in the FY26 Labor-Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill-preventing Trump's devastating cuts to NIH and research into lifesaving cures and treatments. Senator Murray continues to be the leading Democratic voice speaking out for more investments in biomedical research and protecting NIH, and this bill is an important step in preventing the Trump administration from decimating the biomedical research enterprise Congress has built in a bipartisan manner over decades, which has long been the envy of the world and drives medical innovation that has saved millions of lives. Senator Murray and Democrats were able to reject Trump's proposal to cap indirect cost rates, reject the Trump administration's proposal to eliminate four NIH Institutes and Centers and consolidate the rest, and codify in bill language for the first time, funding levels for select NIH programs, including universal flu vaccine development, maternal mortality research and the Office of Research on Women's Health. The bill also prevents the Trump administration from implementing a misguided policy-at the direction of the Office of Management and Budget over the interests of scientists-to multi-year fund all of its new grants up front. This would have cut the number of new research grants NIH awards this year by the thousands-instead, Democrats ensured that NIH will fund more new research into promising treatments and cures, not less.

[CUTS TO CLINICAL TRIALS]

Senator Murray began her questioning by pressing Dr. Bhattacharya on the Trump administration's devastating cuts to biomedical research. Over the last year, Trump and Dr. Bhattacharya have implemented many policy changes that have caused mass chaos at NIH and severely disrupted medical research. They froze or terminated billions of dollars of federally funded research, issued "supplemental guidance" to illegally cap indirect costs that support research infrastructure, and fired thousands of NIH employees-staff and scientists, causing some NIH labs to shut down: "NIH funds thousands of clinical trials around the world. For families, these trials really represent hope and a chance for new treatments and cures. But last year, 1 in 30 NIH-funded clinical trials were disrupted by the Trump administration's grant terminations, it affected more than 74,000 trial participants."

"Dr. Bhattacharya, what do you have to say to patients who were receiving that life-saving treatment-whose clinical trials were impacted by those cuts?" asked Senator Murray.

"Senator, we made sure that if there was any disruption, that the researchers had resources available to make sure that patients receive continuity of care. Ultimately, we worked with researchers from across the country to make sure that the clinical trials were really focused on advancing health and not on other political agendas and renegotiated them. Ultimately, we have preliminary estimates, I think ultimately ended up maybe only a dozen clinical trials were terminated," Dr. Bhattacharya answered.

Senator Murray replied, "The Trump administration terminated or froze 5,478 NIH grants last year. In less than 6 months, the Trump administration terminated 383 active NIH clinical trials. That included 118 cancer clinical trials. Those patients are in a race for time."

"Can you guarantee to us today that NIH will not terminate grants in this wide-ranging, haphazard way again this year?" Senator Murray asked.

"Senator, I mean, most of those trials were restored-" Dr. Bhattacharya replied in part.

Senator Murray pushed back, "My question to you wasn't going backwards, it's going forwards. Do you guarantee you will not terminate any NIH grant trials this year?"

Dr. Bhattacharya responded, "Senator, in 2020, a very large number of clinical trials were terminated. It's hard to predict the future, but I will guarantee, I can guarantee, that we will focus our clinical trial efforts on advancing health, and not on the ideological."

"Tens of thousands of real people rely on these clinical trials. It's not easy to get into them, and I think we deserve an answer that's much clearer, more direct than you just gave," Senator Murray said.

[NIH ADVISORY COUNCIL VACANCIES]

Senator Murray continued her questioning by pressing Dr. Bhattacharya on his decision to disband the NIH's Advisory Committee to the Director and his failure to recruit and retain Advisory Council members across NIH. Last year, the cancellation of Advisory Council meetings caused a backlog of tens of thousands of grants in the NIH system, which was compounded with the firing of staff. Advisory Councils have been left with fewer members, undermining the expertise required to make decisions on funding grant awards. This has left huge gaps in both expertise and capacity for NIH's scientific grant review process: "This time last year, all of NIH's Institutes and Centers were prohibited from holding Advisory Council meetings-which is the final step, it is mandated by law, before NIH can award any grants. Under your leadership, Advisory Council members have not been replaced at the end of their terms. And for the first time in NIH's 139-year history, you completely disbanded the Advisory Committee to the Director-it hasn't met for more than a year. More than half of NIH Institutes are set to lose all of their voting Advisory Committee members by the end of 2026. In fact, one of the Institute's Council will have no members by the end of this month. Since grants cannot be funded without Council approval, this poses a very serious threat to NIH's ability to fund research."

Senator Murray asked, "Tell us how many Institute Advisory Councils and other review panels have been disbanded under your leadership? And tell us how are you going to fix this?"

"I've ordered the institutes to nominate new members. We're working as fast as we can with dozens and dozens and dozens of new members, including for the Advisory Committee Director, I just sent up a slate. We're going to have those faculty committees working, there will be no delay," answered Dr. Bhattacharya.

Senator Murray pushed, "Well, if you can provide this committee please, with information on the status of every one of these councils and your agenda for getting them done. You can't, by law, send any research dollars until those are in place and without any members."

"That's a priority of mine to make sure that those councils are staffed," replied Dr. Bhattacharya.

[BAN ON FETAL TISSUE RESEARCH]

Senator Murray concluded her questioning by pressing Dr. Bhattacharya about the NIH's recent ban on fetal tissue research, an irreplaceable modality for scientific discovery: "Two weeks ago, NIH issued a ban on fetal tissue research. This policy immediately halted all research that has led to groundbreaking medical advances-from the development of the polio vaccine to IVF. This stops irreplaceable research into new treatments for everything from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's. What is the scientific evidence for NIH banning fetal tissue research?"

"As I said earlier, fetal tissue research has been declining in use because of the availability of new alternatives, including induced pluripotent stem cells and a whole host of other new technologies. We did a study, an investigation, to make sure that the impact, the scientific impact-" Dr. Bhattacharya replied in part.

"But you don't have any evidence that you're going to put in front of us, you're just saying something else is there, and there's not always better alternatives. And in fact, for stem cell research, there's very, very limited [options]. So, you're not presenting us any [evidence]. I'll tell you why I'm asking. This seems to me like a political decision by NIH. You made the decision right when we were having a mass gathering of anti-abortion activists here in DC. So, you can see why all of us go, 'What's this about?' But I am very concerned that NIH, issuing this ban with very little notice, is going to have a huge impact on patients in this country. And I want you to commit to providing to us a complete list of affected projects, so we on this committee know what's been terminated-hopefully by the end of this week," Senator Murray further pressed.

"Absolutely you can have that, but I'm telling you, we didn't terminate projects. We recommended that the-required that the scientists find alternatives, and there are alternatives available. Using tissue from aborted embryos and aborted babies, is not necessary for science," said Dr. Bhattacharya.

"We've been around on this topic many times, we know full well the scientific research that this enables and what is being cut off. And in fact, what is really disconcerting is your announcement that NIH is threatening the use of human embryonic stem cells, that will affect upwards of 600 NIH projects totaling $325 million. Mr. Chairman, you can bet I'll be following this very closely," Senator Murray replied.

Senator Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care, has been fighting back tirelessly against the Trump administration's efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH and push out nearly 4,000 skilled scientists, grants administrators, and other employees at the agency. She led the entire Democratic caucus in a letter last February raising the alarm over the Trump administration's actions to threaten American biomedical research infrastructure and set us back generations. Senator Murray released a statement decrying the Trump administration's all-out assault on the NIH upon meeting with Dr. Bhattacharya last February, and at his nomination hearing in March, she pressed Bhattacharya on the Trump administration's efforts to cut billions from biomedical research through an illegal cap on indirect costs, and their unprecedented halt on NIH Advisory Council Meetings, among other issues. In October, Senator Murray slammed the Trump administration at a HELP hearing for upending biomedical research and cancelling grants, taking a toll at NIH and FDA. She has sent numerous oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration's reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.

Throughout her career, Senator Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research. Over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, she secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments.

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