A week after the National Institutes of Health issued sharp cuts on research infrastructure funding, House Democrats are calling on NIH’s acting director, Matthew Memoli, to reverse course.
In a letter led by Reps. Gabe Amo, Diana DeGette, Linda Sánchez, Lizzie Fletcher and Chrissy Houlahan, and signed by more than 150 other members — and exclusively obtained by NOTUS — Democrats lay out the party’s concerns about the abrupt shift in NIH’s organizational directives, citing potentially negative economic and academic effects from the cuts.
“The supplemental guidance for this misguided and detrimental announcement states that the ‘United States should have the best medical research in the world.’ Cutting vital funding for indirect costs accomplishes the exact opposite,” the letter says. “Instead of supporting efforts to cure disease, this policy will severely compromise the United States’ ability to conduct lifesaving research.”