Senate lawmakers had an opportunity to question National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, during a hearing convened by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on February 3.
Dr. Bhattacharya’s remarks centered on re-establishing public trust in the NIH and science, which were challenged by Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) who countered the Administration’s vaccine policies are having the opposite effect.
Several senators focused on the cancellation of NIH research and clinical trials last year and the impact on research and patient care. Dr. Bhattacharya told the committee NIH spent all money appropriated to it before the end of the 2025 fiscal year, and claimed that ultimately only a dozen clinical trials were canceled. In response to disruptions in care, Dr. Bhattacharya claimed the NIH made sure patients in affected clinical trials had resources of continuity of care, and that if there were disruptions it was the “responsibility of researchers, not the NIH.”
Dr. Bhattacharya suggested delinking NIH research facility support from research projects as a way to disrupt the geographic and institutional concentration of NIH funding, an idea that seemed to garner the support of Sens. Cassidy and Jim Banks (R-IN).
It is expected President Trump’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget will again include cuts to NIH funding and restructuring proposals. Proposals from the Trump Administration have included capping indirect costs (facilities and administrative costs) for NIH research grants and consolidating the current 25 NIH institutes and centers to just eight.