***WATCH SENATOR MURRAY’S OPENING REMARKS AND QUESTIONING***
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS), led a hearing with top officials from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on President Biden’s annual budget request for the agency. During the hearing, Senator Murray stressed the importance of critical investments in biomedical research that support groundbreaking innovation, next-generation COVID vaccines and tests, advancements to address the opioid crisis, and more—in addition to continuing to urge her colleagues to help her pass urgently needed COVID supplemental funding.
“Every day, across Washington state, researchers at the Fred Hutch Center, the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and so many other world class institutions are working around the clock and making groundbreaking discoveries. Discoveries that don’t just drive innovation and economic growth but also bring families cures, treatments, and hope for the future—discoveries that save lives,” said Senator Murray. “And I’m pleased to say this budget request shows the Administration understands the tremendous importance of supporting our nation’s biomedical research community, and continuing our tradition of global leadership here.”
During the hearing, Senator Murray stressed the urgent need to pass emergency supplemental COVID funding to ensure communities have the tests, treatments, and vaccines they need. She also asked NIH leadership about the need for additional resources to further urgent research on next-generation COVID vaccines.
“We need to defend the hard-won progress we have made—and that means passing emergency COVID funding so our communities have the tests, treatments, vaccines, and other tools they need to keep families safe. This is really urgent,” said Senator Murray. “And … I hope we’re able to come together this year—as we have so many times in the past—to continue providing our researchers what they need to help us fight COVID-19 and so many other challenges—challenges like developing better tests, making next-generation vaccines that are effective against all COVID variants, and understanding long COVID and how we support the millions of people who are living with it.”
During the hearing, Senator Murray also highlighted the critical need to take further action to fight the fentanyl and opioid crisis—which she met with frontline responders about in Washington state last week. Noting that overdose deaths spiked in Washington state by more than 30% last year, Senator Murray pushed NIH leaders about the importance of investing in new tools to address the opioid crisis.
In particular, Senator Murray asked Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug abuse, about new overdose prevention strategies: “Are there other overdose prevention strategies that you and HHS hope to roll out in the coming months? How is your Institute contributing to research on other innovative ways to prevent overdose from fentanyl?”
Senator Murray also emphasized the importance of the new Advanced Research Projects Authority for Health (ARPA-H) and its ability to independently pursue cutting-edge research. Senator Murray is working to pass the PREVENT Pandemics Act, bipartisan legislation she has authored to ensure the U.S. acts on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would establish ARPA-H within NIH.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
“Every day, across Washington state, researchers at the Fred Hutch Center, the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and so many other world class institutions are working around the clock and making groundbreaking discoveries.
“Discoveries that don’t just drive innovation and economic growth but also bring families cures, treatments, and hope for the future—discoveries that save lives.
“And I’m pleased to say this budget request shows the Administration understands the tremendous importance of supporting our nation’s biomedical research community, and continuing our tradition of global leadership here.
“Especially as the past few years have been such a stark reminder of how the investments we make in research today, pay off down the road.
“The rapid development of safe, effective COVID vaccines was made possible by research into mRNA vaccines we funded in response to Ebola and other viruses, and by a biomedical research enterprise that has been built over decades.
“And today, thanks to the vaccines and therapeutics that NIH research helped develop, COVID deaths and hospitalizations are the lowest we’ve seen in two years.
“However, we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to this pandemic.
“There is still the threat of new, more deadly variants, especially right now when caseloads are inching up again, but our communities’ resources have largely been spent down.
“We need to defend the hard-won progress we have made—and that means passing emergency COVID funding so our communities have the tests, treatments, vaccines, and other tools they need to keep families safe.
“This is really urgent—so I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we get it done.
“And in addition to providing our communities the resources they need to fight this pandemic, I hope we’re able to come together this year—as we have so many times in the past—to continue providing our researchers what they need to help us fight COVID-19 and so many other challenges.
“Challenges like developing better tests, making next-generation vaccines that are effective against all COVID variants, and understanding long COVID and how we support the millions of people who are living with it.
“And challenges like the mental health crisis this pandemic has made so much worse—especially for young people—or overdose deaths—which have been skyrocketing due to the rise of fentanyl.
“Recently, our nation lost a record 107,000 people to overdose deaths in a single year. And in Washington state opioid deaths increased by two thirds in 2021.
“This crisis is tearing a hole in so many communities, so many families. It is truly heartbreaking. We have to pull out all the stops to get this under control.
“That’s why I’m working on bipartisan legislation to strengthen programs that help our first responders, health care professionals, and others on the frontlines—and why I want to make sure we continue investing in research here, like this budget proposes.
“Of course, the measure of success against any disease is not how much we invest to fight it, it’s how much we are helping patients.
“For example, when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease—that’s exactly what we need to be focused on.
“For patients fighting this disease, the stakes are intensely personal.
“They are fighting to hold on to cherished memories with loved ones, and a feeling of control over their daily lives.
“And the weight of that fight also falls on their family members, friends, and caregivers.
“With so much at stake in their lives, these families deserve to know the research projects they are depending on are being thoughtfully designed, and prioritized for meaningful outcomes and results.
“This is really important for me: especially when we’ve increased funding for Alzheimer’s research six fold since 2015, when the 2025 target date established in the National Alzheimer’s Project Act is just around the corner, and when there are so many other terrible diseases families are desperate for NIH to put more resources into as well.
“Another important undertaking is the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Authority for Health—which aims to break the mold for how cutting edge research is conducted, speed up the discovery and development of medical treatments, and support projects that have the potential to transform medicine.
“I worked hard to provide resources to establish ARPA-H in our bipartisan funding bill earlier this year.
“And I am working hard right now to pass the PREVENT Pandemics Act to set it up for long-term success.
“That requires striking a balance to ensure ARPA-H can complement NIH’s expertise, while still operating independently, to nimbly seize opportunities to accelerate innovation and breakthroughs.
“I am really focused on getting that balance right, so I’ll be asking more about why so much of the NIH budget increase requested by the Administration goes toward ARPA-H when it has yet to bring on a staff, and what that means for the other NIH institutes and centers.
“Of course, at the end of the day, innovation isn’t just driven by new programs and new investments, it’s driven by people.
“Which is why, with as much as we invest in NIH each year, and as important as its work is to families.
“We cannot afford to have this agency’s potential limited, or its success threatened by bias, discrimination or harassment in the workplace.
“We must do more to address harassment in the biomedical research community, as well as address the fact that the number of researchers of color is too low, and even clinical trials often fail to be adequately representative.
“These are real problems with real consequences for research, and I’ve been pressing for progress on this for years.
“So I have been glad to see NIH working to examine barriers to diversity among its researchers, address how its practices have reinforced structural biases and discrimination, and implement a new policy I secured in this Committee that requires those that receive NIH grants to notify the agency when a principal investigator is removed—even temporarily—for sexual harassment or bullying.
“But more work remains to remove racism, discrimination, and harassment from research, and I’m going to continue to follow our progress here.
“Finally, before I turn it over to Senator Blunt, I just want to take a moment to note that this will be the last NIH hearing we have with him and to say how grateful I’ve been to work with him on these issues over the years.
“It’s been good to have a partner across the aisle who understands why these investments are so important to families in Washington state, and in Missouri and who is willing to sit down, and work in bipartisan way to make sure we are delivering for the folks back home.
“And now I’ll turn it over to Senator Blunt for his remarks.”
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