ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Meeting with NIH Nominee Jay Bhattacharya
ICYMI: Republicans Block Murray Amendment to Reverse Devastating and Illegal Cuts to NIH Research
*** VIDEO of Senator Murray’s FULL questioning AQUÍ***
Washington DC - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chairof the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, questioned Dr. Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at a HELP committee audiencia on his nomination. Murray pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on the state of crisis at NIH, with Trump and Elon Musk’s wide-ranging attacks on biomedical research and NIH’s mission—from the unprecedented grant freezes, to the halting of advisory committee meetings and clinical trials, and the indiscriminate and senseless mass firings being carried out by Musk’s “DOGE.” Murray also pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on the Trump administration’s recent attempt to illegally cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent—a move Senator Murray immediately and condenado enérgicamente, led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter decrying the proposed change, and introduced enmiendas to Senate Republicans’ budget resolution to reverse it, which Republicans blocked. Senator Murray reunido con Dr. Bhattacharya last month.
Murray began by pressing Dr. Bhattacharya on Elon Musk’s unprecedented influence on NIH and the massive, indiscriminate firings of skilled scientists and researchers—over 1,100 employees at NIH have already been fired, many of whom held critical research positions. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that right now, President Trump and Elon Musk are really putting a lot of lifesaving research at risk,” Dijo el senador Murray. “We’ve had grant freezes, pauses on advisory meetings, pauses on clinical trials, mass firings being carried out by the so-called DOGE, and it is really threatening our ability to treat childhood cancers, to mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and to better understand and treat women’s health issues.”
“Do you support the recent researcher firings and grant freezes that have been implemented by Trump and DOGE?,” Preguntó Murray.
Dr. Bhattacharya said he was not involved in those decisions and that, if confirmed, he would “fully commit to making sure that all the scientists at the NIH and the scientists that the NIH supports have the resources they need to meet the mission of the NIH.”
“Do you support further cuts at NIH funding, or staff?,” Murray pressed.
“I don’t have any intention to cut anyone at the NIH,” Bhattacharya responded.
“How about all the grant freezes and the pauses on the all the advisory committee meetings, all the pauses that are now in effect on clinical trials that are happening there right now?” asked Murray.
Bhattacharya responded that he had only read the press accounts of it and had “not interacted with people in the agency.”
“Well if you’re confirmed, Day One, what will you do about that?” Murray pressed. Bhattacharya said he would assess it and “understand what resources the whole NIH needs and make sure that the scientists that are working at the NIH have the resources to do the lifesaving work that they do… the personnel decisions are hard to talk about unless I’m actually confirmed.”
“Well I’ll just tell you right now, I am deeply concerned about the funding there, the research that’s been stopped, and all that’s going on. And I want a very strong assurance that you will get that moving again, Day One,” Murray replied.
“Absolutely, I’m going to be looking very carefully at the personnel decisions; I want the NIH to be staffed absolutely appropriately to match the mission of the NIH,” Bhattacharya replied.
Next, Murray asked about the Trump administration’s illegal plan to cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent, which Senator Murray has forcefully decried. “It amounts to a massive funding cut for research institutions, large and small, red and blue states, everyone,” Murray explained. “And it brings a lot of lifesaving research to a screeching halt—sick kids wouldn’t get treatment, and clinical trials shut down.”
Murray asked Dr. Bhattacharya about the effect a drastic 15 percent cap on indirect costs would have on critical research at Stanford—his own institution—and what he would say to his former colleagues, researchers in Washington state, and other scientists about the Trump administration’s attempt to illegally impose a 15 percent cap on indirect costs. In his response, Dr. Bhattacharya referred to indirect costs as “a tip” and claimed: “I don’t know where that goes, I think a lot of it likely goes to things that are worthwhile… But there’s a lot of distrust about where the money goes because the trust in the public health establishment has collapsed… I think transparency regarding indirect costs is absolutely worthwhile.”
Finally, Murray pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on whether he would “get the research committees going again, the Advisory Councils immediately on Day One.” Bhattacharya replied: “yes, if I’m confirmed I want those Advisory Councils, I want all that to go.”
“Well I think we should all recognize that NIH is the largest medical researcher in the world, they’re a global leader, we should be extremely proud of what they do. Nearly a third of all the Nobel Prizes to date have been awarded to scientists at NIH and supported by NIH funds,” Murray concluded. “I’m extremely concerned by the dramatic cuts and firings and stopping of the research that’s going on at NIH right now.”
As a longtime appropriator and former Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Previously, over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Murray secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her Ley PREVENIR Pandemias to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan Ley de curaciones del siglo XXI, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments.
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