Republican Sen. Susan Collins lambasted National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya at a hearing Tuesday morning over the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the agency’s funding.
“I am well aware that you have devoted your life to medical research, to health economics, and that you care very deeply about NIH,” said Collins, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, where Bhattacharya was appearing. “That is why the administration’s reduction of more than $19 billion to the agency’s budget — approximately 40% — is so disturbing.”
Along with cutting the agency’s budget from $47 billion to $27 billion, the budget proposal would also consolidate the number of divisions within the NIH from 28 to 15, terminate thousands of contracts and end certain federal and social health care programs.