Bhattacharya during a Senate Appropriations hearing Tuesday. Photo: Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya faced bipartisan criticism Tuesday over the Trump administration's steep cuts to biomedical research in his agency's FY26 budget.
Why it matters: Senators in both parties indicated they are not likely to go along with the major proposed cuts, and some also expressed concern that damage is already being done through canceled grants.
Driving the news: Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins was the most critical from the Republican side at a Labor-HHS subcommittee hearing on NIH's budget request. She said the cuts would "delay or stop effective treatments and cures from being developed for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, Type 1 Diabetes — I could go on and on."
- She said she would work to address "deficiencies" in the proposed budget.
- Bhattacharya largely did not defend the specifics of the proposed $18 billion cut in the budget request, which amounts to a roughly 40% cut in NIH funding. Instead he noted that the appropriations process is "a collaboration between Congress and the administration" and that Congress could change it.
- "This is a budget proposal, not a final thing," he said.
Yes, but: Democratic senators argued that damage is already being done. Top Democratic appropriators wrote a letter Monday criticizing the "reckless termination" of 2,370 NIH grants representing $4.9 billion in federal funding to research institutions this year.
- Appropriations' top Democrat, Patty Murray, also pointed to a letter that NIH employees released Monday raising alarm about canceled grants and other upheaval at the agency.
- "I really hope you heed their warning, and it should go without saying, but I expect none of them to face retaliation for raising those concerns," Murray said.
What they're saying: Bhattacharya said there's an appeals process for terminated grants, after Sen. Brian Schatz said some grants were terminated without any careful review simply because they used certain keywords in their proposals.
- "It won't take 18 months; it will take weeks to get through those appeals," Bhattacharya said. "We've reversed many of them. I didn't take this job to terminate grants."
- Pressed by Sen. Jeff Merkley about delayed advisory council meetings that, in turn, can delay making grants, Bhattacharya sought to provide assurances that they're resuming, saying "I've been working to turn on all of the light switches I can find."
The bottom line: A controversial policy NIH imposed this spring to cap universities' "indirect" research costs at 15% also drew criticism from Collins, who said she was "alarmed" that the administration's FY26 budget proposes continuing the cap.
- Bhattacharya said the matter was the subject of litigation and that he couldn't comment.
- "When's the last time Congress took a president's budget and enacted it?" said Sen. John Kennedy, seeking to tone down the concern. "It's never happened in the history of ever, has it?"
