Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on reports today that President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is now explicitly preventing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from spending funding Congress appropriated for lifesaving research into treatments and cures for devastating diseases. This escalation by the Trump administration would choke off approximately $15 billion in funding that would otherwise go to institutions across the country between now and September 30. It appears that OMB is issuing similar directives to the Department of Health and Human Services, preventing the awarding of funding in other programs while it refuses to be transparent with the American public about what it is doing. A statement from HHS confirms recent reporting that NIH funds are being withheld, while an OMB spokesperson disputed this without providing any evidence.
“President Trump and his administration have already taken a wrecking ball to our nation’s medical research system—pushing scientists out the door, cutting off lifesaving research, and preventing $5 billion in NIH investments from going out the door to support critical research this year alone. Now, as the end of the fiscal year draws near, it appears President Trump and Russ Vought are working to make it official that they do in fact intend to decimate lifesaving research in this country. This decision would cut off roughly $15 billion in funding that would otherwise be awarded to research institutions across the country over the next two months.
“What is stunning to me is that OMB is saying that these funds are being released, while HHS is saying exactly the opposite—the chaos and dysfunction of the Trump administration is staggering. These people should not be managing a lemonade stand, much less all federal cancer research.
“If true, this outrageous decision to prevent NIH from spending the funding that Congress has explicitly provided for medical research must immediately be reversed—life-changing cures and patients’ lives hang in the balance. Instead of trying to destroy the NIH, which has long been the envy of the world, President Trump and Russ Vought should study up on the Constitution, which makes clear they don’t get to decide for themselves that they are going to rip hopes of new treatments and cures away from patients across America.
“We can’t immediately undo the massive brain drain, the shuttered clinical trials, and the damage this administration is causing. Medical miracles don’t happen overnight, and you can’t turn lifesaving research on and off at the drop of a dime. This administration is doing irreparable harm to our efforts to cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, and so much more. But this administration can—and must—stem the bleeding by ending its attacks on medical research and getting this funding out the door. This administration is lying about waste, fraud, and abuse at NIH to justify attacking medical research—and we all need to say it and speak out against this administration’s assault on science and medicine.”
Over the weekend, in response to bipartisan pressure to release withheld NIH funding, OMB Director Russ Vought refused to state that the Trump administration would release cancer research funding by September 30.
OMB’s decision to choke this funding off should be public—listed on a public website that it is required to maintain. But Vought pulled the website down this spring in defiance of bipartisan appropriations law and has refused to restore it despite bipartisan demands to do just that. Last week, a federal judge ruled it must be restored, stating the administration is: “There is nothing unconstitutional about Congress requiring the Executive Branch to inform the public of how it is apportioning the public’s money.”
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