Dear Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro:
We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to share our opposition to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations bill as currently written. We are extremely concerned about the cuts to public health and biomedical research programs, including the $48 billion funding level for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that would result in cuts to research.
Additionally, and importantly, we are alarmed that the Labor-HHS bill incorporates policy to restructure the NIH. Authorizing an entirely new structure for the NIH in an appropriations bill without hearings, data, and review of the impact on biomedical research is a violation of process and procedures. This massive consolidation of NIH’s Institutes and Centers amounts to Congress dictating science; it would affect all research conducted at the NIH and be detrimental to the research enterprise. A policy of this magnitude — and one affecting one of our nation’s preeminent research institutions — should not be included in an appropriations bill. It must be considered by an authorizing body through an open, transparent process that includes input from a variety of key stakeholders and follows a thorough review of NIH operations and portfolios.
We appreciate the Committee’s historical support for the NIH. The FY 2025 Labor-HHS bill, however, falls very short of supporting the biomedical research enterprise, and includes provisions — like the NIH restructuring — that require due diligence prior to being legislated. Consequently, we urge the Committee to remove the language to restructure NIH and urge that there be congressional hearings and a deliberate bipartisan and bicameral process before advancing legislation to restructure the NIH.