On July 10, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted 31-25 to approve funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and human Services, and Education and related agencies for FY25. Included in the bill was funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bill maintains NIH’s current funding of $48.6 billion, but directs major changes to NIH’s organization, consolidating NIH’s 27 institutes and centers into 15, and wraps ARPA-H into a new National Institute on Innovation and Advanced Research. The new Institute receives $500 million in funding through September 2027, a decrease of $1 billion for ARPA-H
On the Subcommittee’s proposal, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said, “The House needs to hold public hearings, engage in a thoughtful process to incorporate the best ideas to advance NIH as the crown jewel of biomedical research…the proposed reorganization in today’s partisan bill falls short.”
Proponents of the NIH identify that it is not only beneficial to the health of the nation, but an economically sound investment. In a post by the Association of American Universities’ President Barbara R. Snyder, a 2023 study by United for Medical Research found that a series of robust annual investments in NIH’s budget from FY15-FY22 led to major economic benefits for seven largely rural states where NIH spent nearly $1 billion supporting research through universities and other local institutions. That $1 billion expenditure, the study found, resulted in more than $2.2 billion in new economic activity, more than 14,000 jobs, and demonstrated how rural states benefit from strong NIH funding.
In her closing statement Snyder wrote, “Particularly as America’s population ages and new global pandemics threaten, it would be unwise at best to cut some of the most valuable lifesaving research that the federal government supports. History has demonstrated that our nation’s health and economy benefit disproportionately from one of the safest bets in science: strong federal support for the NIH.”
With the House Appropriations Committee’s introduction of the low-end of potential funding for 2025, the Committees in the Senate concerned with funding the NIH will deliberate and release their own funding priorities and proposals. In May U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released a white paper detailing NIH’s key role in funding biomedical research and his willingness to work with colleagues to strengthen NIH.
The proposed funding levels included within the bill are subject to change as both chambers of Congress are expected to engage in negotiations before the expiration of the current fiscal year on September 30, 2024.