[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 211 (Monday, December 15, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S8703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NIH FUNDING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I also want to draw attention to the 
crisis surrounding medical research in this country, created entirely 
by this new Trump administration.
  Ten years ago, I met with Dr. Francis Collins, then the Director of 
the National Institutes of Health, the world's premium biomedical 
research agency. I admired his work so much that I asked him what I 
could do to help.
  He said:

       If you can provide a 5-percent increase to NIH's medical 
     research budget, year after year, we'll light up the 
     scoreboard.

  So I took that message and went back to Congress. With the help of 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle--Republican Senator Roy Blunt, 
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, and Democratic Senator Patty 
Murray--we increased NIH funding from $30 billion to $48 billion over 
the next 10 years, a 60-percent increase in research--a 60-percent 
increase in cures, hopes, and breakthroughs.
  But what took us 10 years to build, President Donald Trump has all 
but dismantled in less than 11 months.
  Recent reporting from the New York Times shed light on the dire 
consequences of President Trump's medical research cuts. The President 
and DOGE instituted a new set of rules at NIH that resulted in 3,500 
fewer medical research grants, affecting virtually every area of 
medical study.
  Funding for mental health was reduced 31 percent, brain diseases by 
26 percent, and cancer research by 19 percent. All of these reductions 
are in real areas of opportunity, which we are walking away from under 
Trump. This is a fundamental blow to how America supports medical 
research and has real implications for the progress we made.
  Instead of ushering in the next wave of medical breakthroughs, which 
could save you or your loved one from suffering, this administration 
has cut them off at the knees.
  I am pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee, on a 
bipartisan basis, rejected Trump's proposed cuts and actually provided 
an increase for next year. But if the administration ignores Congress's 
wish and continues to upend research funding, that could create 
irreparable harm.
  As the father of a child born with a severe medical condition, I know 
personally that families across this country depend on the hope and 
promise that research holds. Cures and treatments that come from the 
National Institutes of Health funded the research behind 99 percent of 
the new drugs approved by the FDA in the last decade.
  Oh, sure, you see the ads on television for all these new drugs that 
they say hold onto some promise. The pharmaceutical companies that are 
selling them and developing them have virtually all started with 
Federal research by the taxpayers of this country--the same research 
that has been cut off now by President Trump.
  So when Donald Trump handicaps the NIH's work, he is telling 
patients: Your cure can wait.
  Our communities will feel the pain of this change too. Our 
universities, not just in blue States but in every State--great 
research institutions in Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma--will be 
unable to pursue more cures. Our hospitals, already scaling back 
operations thanks to budget cuts and the President's so-called ``Big 
Beautiful Budget Bill,'' will be forced to diminish services even more.
  The scientists and doctors of tomorrow may decide to forego their 
profession entirely or bring their talents to other countries.
  As we fight to protect healthcare for millions of Americans, let us 
also not forget to fight for research that fuels that care. We cannot 
stand for this assault on medical research funding. We need to continue 
to work on a bipartisan basis to make sure that funding does continue.
  It is not just a matter of national pride. It is a matter of finding 
cures and drugs that will help people all around the world and that has 
defined America for decades.
  We can't let the Trump administration kill off medical research and 
kill off that dream that people keep alive every single day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.

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