FY 2025 Budget Hearing Held on Capitol Hill

Directors Highlight Research Accomplishments

BY JENNIFER HARKER, THE NIH CATALYST

A congressional hearing for NIH's fiscal year 2025 budget request was held May 23 on Capitol Hill. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies directed questions to NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, and to NCI Director Kimryn Rathmell, NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, NHLBI Director Gary Gibbons, NIA Director Richard Hodes, and NIDA Director Nora Volkow. The budget hearing was a first for Bertagnolli as NIH director, and for Rathmell and Marrazzo as IC directors. Topic highlights included the following health concerns and scientific advancements at NIH that are top-of-mind for Congress.

Addiction, Alzheimer’s Disease: Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) discussed recent research led by NIDA grantee Ali Rezai, who is a West Virginia University neurosurgeon using a focused ultrasound technique to open the blood-brain barrier to aid in treatments for addiction (PMID: 37610405) and Alzheimer’s disease (PMID: 38169490).

“This is the perfect example where science has transformed the way that we can tackle problems,” answered Director Bertagnolli. “This is possible because of our understanding how the brain works, and through brain technologies developed by the BRAIN Initiative. Dr. Rezai is using our low-intensity focused ultrasound to basically restructure the way that the nucleus accumbens, which is the area of the brain involved with reward, actually gets disrupted by drugs.”

The 10th annual BRAIN Initiative Conference occurred June 16–18. Program updates from the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative director, John Ngai, as well as sessions on building neural networks with music, a NeuroAI Research effort, and many other innovative topics can all be viewed on the virtual conference website.

Avian Flu and H5N1: At the time of the hearing, H5N1 had infected 51 dairy cattle herds across nine states. Since, those numbers have risen. “This is a pathogen that has been on our radar for a long time,” said NIAID Director Marrazzo, adding that investigators across the country have been monitoring H5N1 for more than a decade through the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response, or CEIRR Network. “The good news is that we are really prepared to not only test the current vaccines that we have in the stockpile but also to develop specific vaccines. We are also working closely with other agencies and continuing to develop monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and antiviral drugs,” she said.

Long COVID: Congress appropriated $1.2 billion in 2021 for long COVID research. “I am very pleased to speak on this as the NIH Director,” Bertagnolli said, adding that long COVID is an all-of-NIH activity. “What has been accomplished is to understand a new disease that dropped on us that we did not understand before. RECOVER Initiative researchers have been collecting biospecimens and electronic health record data that have allowed for five platform clinical trial structures: autonomic dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction, exercise intolerance and fatigue, sleep disturbances, and viral persistence.”

Women’s Health Research: Bertagnolli addressed questions about maternal health, maternal mortality, NIH’s role in the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, and menopause. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) said to the directors present, “I think it was Senator [Lisa] Murkowski (R-AK) who said to us, ‘If men went through menopause we’d have an institute at NIH.’ We are not asking for that, we are just asking to make sure we really focus on it, so I appreciate your efforts.”

Relatedly, on June 14, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released a document detailing a proposed structural reform of the NIH that suggests reducing the number of ICs from 27 to 15. 

Click here to download the full report.

At the congressional budget hearing, members expressed their unwavering support for the NIH. “This is national security,” said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) about funding the NIH. “I am not going to take one penny away from the Pentagon, but for God’s sake, the NIH is doing things which is going to save as many lives as anybody that works in the Pentagon, maybe more.”

Murray concurred, adding, “The fact of the matter is NIH is fighting some of our nation’s most devastating adversaries: cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, opioid addiction, long COVID, to say nothing of rare diseases or pandemic threats. The life-saving work happening at NIH really shows, as I have been reminding my colleagues, that if we are serious about protecting our families here then we need robust defense and nondefense spending. I hope we can all come together to support this work along with many of our other crucial domestic priorities.”

The budget hearing is available to view here.