Witnesses, including Former NIH Director, highlight how deep cuts, staffing layoffs, and delayed funding at NIH hurt life-saving research 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) hosted a forum on Capitol Hill titled “Cures in Crisis: What Gutting NIH Research Means for Americans with Cancer, Alzheimer’s, & Other Diseases.”

The forum featured former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, M.D., two Alzheimer’s disease researchers, and two patients who have benefitted from NIH clinical trials. The forum was hosted by Sens. Baldwin and Welch and attended by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 15 Democratic Senators.

Senator Welch and Senator Baldwin lead the Senate’s health care strike team in the Senate, which pushes back against the Trump Administration’s attacks on patients, providers, and medical research across the United States. 

Watch a livestream of the forum here and view photos from the event below:  

“The Trump Administration has taken a wrecking ball to the National Institutes of Health without a care about who gets hurt in the process. The first to feel the impact of these cuts will be American patients who rely on NIH’s cutting-edge research to get new therapies and cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. DOGE’s mass firing spree has also left our nation’s top scientists on the chopping block, stifling American innovation and weakening our leadership in biomedical science for years to come. These cuts and layoffs mean the difference between life and death for communities in both red and blue states,” said Senator Welch. “I’m proud to join Senator Baldwin and our colleagues today to defend our commitment to science, research, and care across America.” 

“I truly wish I didn’t need to host this forum but Elon Musk’s Doge and Donald Trump are quite literally on a path to rip away cures to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease – all to make room in their budget for tax breaks for the richest of the rich. Today, we heard from the people who will be paying the price – and I hope my Republican colleagues and the President were listening,” said Senator Baldwin. “Right now, we are wasting precious time that we cannot get back for American families hoping that their loved one has a chance to get better.” 

“I resigned my post as NIH Director in January of this year. Since then, I have had no insight into how decisions are being made by our current leaders at HHS. I can speak, however, about the downstream effects of their decisions, and some irreparable damage that their policies are producing. To date more than 300 grants terminated; and about $1.5 billion in funding delays and barriers that are preventing NIH’s role of ensuring that funding is delivered to outstanding researchers across the nation,” said Dr. Bertagnolli, former Director of the NIH. “Today, we are just beginning to see progress against devastating diseases which have long been hopeless – Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, even pancreatic cancer – all because of NIH funding. And this has proven to be a great investment for American taxpayers – producing both extraordinary improvements in health, and significant profits for our nation’s economy. How can we afford to see this progress stalled? Overall, the loss to our nation on so many levels will be too great.” 

“I’m here to emphasize the critical importance of NIH funding in the fight against Alzheimer’s—a disease that is one of our greatest public health and economic challenges. While deaths from heart disease and cancer have leveled off or declined thanks to decades of NIH investment, deaths from Alzheimer’s and related dementias have increased. Over 6.9 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s today—a number projected to double by 2050 without effective solutions,” said Dr. Sterling Johnson, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor and Associate Director of Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “Our patients who have this progressive disease don’t have the luxury of time to shoulder the unnecessary delays and uncertainty that we are currently experiencing. The clock is ticking for them and their families. Now more than ever we need the continued full resolve and commitment of the federal government to meet their need.”  

“I am here today as a scientist who has had 2 NIH grants abruptly terminated in the past month. On February 28th my first NIH grant was terminated, which had only 6 months remaining on a 4-year award… While these terminations are devastating for me and my team, particularly junior faculty and students, my primary concern is for the patients, research participants and the families who are already being impacted by the NIH’s recent radical shift in funding priorities,” said Dr. Whitney Wharton, PhD, Emory University Associate Professor and Alzheimer’s Disease researcher. “Termination of my peer reviewed grants, and hundreds of others, which were awarded based on merit, has potentially devastating implications for all Americans. It sets a concerning precedent where scientific inquiry and peer reviewed and awarded projects are turned off and on based on a set of changing priorities. Not only can this cause confusion, but it could also impact the pipeline of new and talented young investigators, and erase entire communities of patients, who are the most impacted by diseases like Alzheimer’s, from research entirely.” 

“I speak here today not only for myself, but for every patient who has ever held out hope that research would buy them another year — or another decade. Without robust, sustained, and predictable funding from the NIH, those bridges to the next treatment won’t be there when patients need them. The bridge that saved me was built through decades of investment, innovation, and relentless commitment from our nation’s scientific community. But those bridges don’t build themselves,” said Dr. Larry Saltzman, M.D., retired physician living with leukemia and former Executive Research Director for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “I am living proof of what NIH research can do, and I don’t think I would be here today without the commitment that Congress has shown by prioritizing NIH funding over the past many decades. I ask you to protect this funding — so that more people can outlive their expiration dates.” 

“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies have been critical in funding groundbreaking research that offers hope to thousands of individuals like me, including by providing access to experimental treatments for ALS. The experimental drug I am taking could not only extend my life but could also lead to a cure. Access to this drug could mean seeing my son and grandson graduate high school and college, something I did not think was possible when I was diagnosed,” said Mr. Jessy Ybarra, veteran living with ALS and Board of Trustees member for the ALS Association. “But now funding cuts and reductions to funding at NIH and other research agencies threaten to derail decades of progress right when we are at the tipping point of finally finding a cure. But to be clear, this isn’t just about me, and everyone else impacted by ALS now and in the future. ALS costs our nation over one-billion dollars a year. Investing in finding a cure is not only fiscally responsible, but very simply, good public policy. I urge Congress to reject these harmful cuts to NIH and support the funding necessary.” 

Joining Senators Baldwin, Welch, and Schumer at the forum were Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass).  

Over the last two months, the Trump Administration has attacked, compromised, and gutted research at the NIH for lifesaving cures and treatments, including: 

• Cutting Funding for Research Facilities: NIH announced last month that it was planning to arbitrarily cap indirect cost rates at 15%, which would slash billions of dollars in funding that helps research institutions, like the University of Wisconsin, operate their facilities and labs, pay staff, and buy equipment needed for groundbreaking work to find cures for diseases and treatments for patients. 

• Stopping Funding for Alzheimer’s Disease: The Trump Administration is jeopardizing $65 million in funding for Alzheimer’s disease research at 14 research institutions across the country. 14 of the 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRCs) have had their funding halted because the Trump Administration continues to cancel NIH Advisory Council meetings, which are the final required step in the grant approval process. 

• Terminating Grants for Lifesaving Research: The Trump Administration stopped all grant funding at NIH for ten days in February and is continuing to block funding for lifesaving disease research, like finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. This halt in funding is despite two court orders directing the Trump Administration to end its unlawful efforts to freeze all federal grants. This is in addition to Elon Musk indiscriminately terminating hundreds of active NIH grants every week, in direct defiance of federal court orders to stop NIH funding changes amid ongoing litigation. 

• Gutting Critical Staff: Mass layoffs at HHS under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s direction are impacting everything from research to clinical trials, including scientists, nurses, pharmacists, and experts tracking disease spread. Reports show the NIH is expected to cut between 3,400 and 5,000 positions from its workforce of 20,000.  

NIH funding contributed to research for roughly 99% of drugs approved between 2010 and 2019, including heart medications, according to the Center for American Progress. The advocacy group United for Medical Research found that in fiscal year 2023, funding from the agency supported more than 410,000 jobs, with 10,000 NIH-supported jobs in some states. In that same year, NIH-funded research fueled nearly $93 billion in economic spending. Overall, the economic benefit of NIH funding is more than twice the investment made through NIH appropriations.  

For a breakdown of how much funding each state receives from the NIH, click here. A one-pager on President Donald Trump’s actions to gut the NIH and its impacts is available here. 

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